Schaefer rejects TFA bid to prematurely end contract
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Determined to cling on to the job, Thailand's beleaguered soccer team coach Winfried Schaefer insisted he had no plan to leave the post he has held for nearly two years.
The future of the 63-year-old German has been the subject of intense speculation for weeks following the Thai team’s dreadful start to their Asian Cup qualifying campaign, which saw them suffer successive defeats in their opening two matches.
Since the team’s heavy 5-2 loss to Lebanon in their Group B clash in Beirut in late March, the Thai FA, though, decided to defer a discussion on the future of the veteran trainer after the Asian Football Confederation’s presidential election earlier this month.
Now, having time for internal issues again after his failure in a bid to become the new head of the regional governing body, Football Association of Thailand president Worawi Makudi revealed on Friday that he had tried to implore Schaefer to end his contract with one year remaining.
However, the former Cameroon manager Schafer, whose relationship with the Thai media has now turned sour, stressed he had no intention to walk away from what he felt was an unfinished work and he hoped to start a reforming process instead.
“I had asked Worawi for a meeting for a long time. We finally met yesterday. Like he said to the media, he told me that we had many enemies, which make the work difficult, and suggested it would be better to cancel the contract.
“I explained that I don’t fear these enemies and that we could overcome all enemies with hard work, which is what we’ve been doing all along. And we agreed to talk again in July. I can’t go more in detail about what we talked about, but I don’t want to cancel my contract.
“Instead I want to begin with the reform project and that’s what I told him. So when a few journalists began calling me to ask about Worawi ending my contract at the end of June, I was very confused,” said Schaefer, who took over the national post since July 2011.
