On Saturday evening in the ZDF sports studio, Markus Anfang publicly stated for the first time that he had his vaccination card falsified.

That didn't just cost him his job as head coach at the second division club Werder Bremen.

In addition, the district court in Bremen sentenced him for using incorrect health certificates, and the penalty order became final on Thursday.

Beginning has to pay a fine of 90 daily rates of 400 euros each, so the total fine is 36,000 euros.

He does not have a criminal record, that would only be the case from 91 daily rates.

The conversation with ZDF moderator Sven Voss began with what the beginning wanted to get rid of.

He thanked me for "giving me the opportunity to express myself here".

He also wants to use this opportunity "for just officially apologizing for what I've done".

Beginning kept saying that evening that all he could do was apologize.

Of course, he was primarily invited to the studio to answer questions.

Many of them come to mind, but two in particular.

The first: Why did he jeopardize his further career as a coach with a fake vaccination card?

Beginning said he was afraid for his job.

If you become infected with Corona as an unvaccinated person in professional football, you have to be in quarantine for 14 days.

If these failures occur several times, according to the initial logic, a club will probably no longer accept it at some point.

Beginning did not want to confirm that SV Werder had put pressure on him to get vaccinated.

The second question: what are his reasons for not getting vaccinated against Covid-19 to date?

Beginning said he was concerned about possible heart damage from the vaccine, citing his and his family's health history as the reason.

He himself had already had a myocarditis, his father suffered a heart attack in the stands in 2019 at a game of 1. FC Köln, which Beginning was training at the time, and had to be revived.

Beginning said he had consulted several doctors.

However, nobody was able to take away the fear “that you can get it”.

“That” probably meant that the vaccination can cause heart muscle inflammation.

This occurs mainly in men under the age of 30, as the Paul Ehrlich Institute recently announced again, beginning is 47. Above all, however, the risk of heart damage following current studies is noticeably greater with a corona infection than with a vaccination.

Beginning was cautious about the prospect of returning to professional football.

He hopes for a second chance, but can't wait.

The sports court of the German Football Association had banned him for one year retrospectively from November 20, 2021, with the sentence being suspended on probation from June 1, 2022.

He didn't have any convincing arguments ready for himself in the gym.