Günter Netzer
'I never felt at ease with the idea that I was important apart from football.'
From deep midfield to downtown Switzerland
‘Netzer broke through from deep midfield’ – this formulation by cultural critic Karl Heinz Bohrer made the brilliant playmaker of the ‘best German national team of all time’ into a cult figure for intellectuals while he was still a young man. Günter Netzer was the first player to rebel against a manager, refusing to carry out orders uncritically. In the early nineteen seventies, when the image of the ‘ugly German’ still lingered, Netzer did almost as much to improve the standing of Germans as Willy Brandt when he knelt before the monument to the Warsaw Ghetto. From ‘deep midfield’ – or literally ‘the depth of space’ – Günter Netzer moved to the narrower confines of Switzerland, where he established himself as a successful businessman in the field of sports rights. But his second major career after his playing days also began in Switzerland. Before Netzer became a cult figure once again as a football commentator in Germany, Swiss television gave him his first chance, and Netzer turned out to be a big fan of the Swiss national team.
The interview was conducted by Jürg Altwegg of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
The photographs are by Jim Rakete.
JA: When did you last have fondue?
GN: Not that long ago. I like fondue very much – cheese and meat fondue. It must have been about four weeks ago.
JA: And Kappeler Milchsuppe? [This soup dates back to the first war of Kappel in 1528, which was averted when, as legend has it, the Protestant and Catholic armies made soup out of bread and milk, which they shared while peace was being negotiated.]
GN: What?
JA: Kappeler Milchsuppe.
GN: I haven’t got a clue.
JA: When was the Battle of Morgarten?
GN: I don’t know.
JA: And when will Switzerland join the EU?
JA: That’s a tough question! I can see very well how things are moving in this country. It will be some time before there is a political majority for membership. But it is sure to happen.
JA: Does the fact that Switzerland is not a member of the European Union play any part in your decision to live here?
GN: Not at all. The decision was based entirely on personal motives. In 1986 I ended my playing career in Hamburg. I said at the time that football had absorbed all my energy and that I did not intend to continue in the game. I wanted to start a new chapter in my life and to enjoy a calmer lifestyle. To start a family and to have children. I did not want to be in the public eye so much any more. For two and a half years my girlfriend – who is now my wife – and I lived in a small hotel room in Kreuzlingen with our child, who was born here. That was the way it had to be. Despite the unfavourable circumstances I never for a moment considered returning to my old familiar surroundings.
JA: Why was that the way it had to be?
GN: We had not decided what we really wanted to do. The hotel was a stopgap while we were looking for something better. I had lived in big cities and my wife had lived in Hamburg for eighteen years. The Thurgau region seemed a bit too small and rural for us. We realised that the Lake Constance area was not a long-term solution. But the idea of making a new start worked out. I realise now that it was the right decision, and that I was right to quit football. Today I look at football from a distance.
JA: Why didn’t you want to be a manager?
GN: I owe almost everything to football, and that is something I have not forgotten. I have always known what I can’t do in life. Management would not have suited me. But I also know what my strengths are. I can analyse a match, I can explain it in understandable terms. The language I use is clear and authentic, and people understand it. I don’t make football out to be more than it really is, and I certainly don’t make a science out of it.
JA: But it is a religion, a ritual, isn’t it?
GN: Yes, you’re right, it certainly is. Even in my playing days we noticed that ersatz wars were being fought in the stadiums. They gave fans the chance to let off steam. This is still the case, and it is probably a good thing.
JA: You know what it is like in Switzerland when Germany are playing – shouting and screaming everywhere, and everyone wants to see Germany’s opponents win.
GN: It is not only the Swiss who are delighted to see Germany lose. It is no different in Holland.
JA: Yes, but the Dutch were invaded by Germany.
GN: Yes, that’s true. A big neighbour often provokes envy, jealousy, schadenfreude and even fear. I notice this again and again and I do not take it all that seriously. Whenever Germany played Switzerland, they were usually the better team. Germany is bigger, football has developed historically and has a higher social importance.
JA: As a player you were acclaimed by Swiss fans too. But one of your main claims to fame is that you were the inspiration for the first inclusion of football in the arts pages of a newspaper. The article ‘Netzer broke through from deep midfield’
by cultural historian Karl Heinz Bohrer in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung gave football a new dimension.
GN: This article helped me enormously. I was fascinated by the analyses of various reviewers who wrote about me. They discerned something in me that I recognised myself but could not put into words. These journalists were beginning to use football as a way of explaining social processes. But as pragmatists and practitioners on the park we of course saw things differently. We were apolitical. All we wanted was to play football and win.
JA: What was written about you would never have been written about Uwe Seeler [famous German football player]. You were a completely new kind of figure on the field of play – and beyond it.
'A big neighbour often provokes envy, jealousy, schadenfreude and even fear.'
GN: That has to do with the way I come across. Then and now, everything about me is authentic. I have never tried to play a part just because some adviser told me that it would be the best move or would help me to achieve the best results. I never wanted to cause a sensation or a scandal. I always acted according to my character. In those days it was out of the ordinary to look a bit different, to dress a bit differently. On top of that I drove an expensive car – footballers weren’t supposed to do that in those days. But compared with the important things in life it was a storm in a teacup.
JA: Even so, it meant a lot and had a big impact. And in a country where there was a blind faith in authority at the time, you were the first player to argue with his manager.
GN: This was totally forbidden at the time. Managers had absolute authority and there was no discussion about their decisions. I rebelled against this unwritten rule. That had to do with the fact that I was the centre of attention. People were either for me or against me. A lot of people said Netzer is crazy. The way he looks says it all.
JA: But this made you into an ambassador for the Federal Republic of Germany; you helped to improve Germany’s image in the world. This attracted attention abroad – like Ostpolitik or Willy Brandt kneeling before the monument to the Warsaw Ghetto.
GN: It is nice to hear that. We never noticed anything of the kind at the time, and I was always a little wary of the interest arts page writers showed in me. I never felt at ease with the idea that I was important apart from football. I never quite understood it.
JA: Luckily, perhaps.
GN: It would have bothered me and distorted my personality. I would probably have been distracted from my real goal.
JA: Perhaps the clean break you made from football at the end of your career was connected with this. How did your new career in Switzerland get started?
BH: Together with a friend of mine, I extended the concept of perimeter advertising. We went systematically around Eastern Europe and bought up tv rights. This activity was the foundation stone for my company’s success. In the end, the company was sold to Leo Kirch. After the collapse of the Kirch Group, the managers took over the firm and I also joined the partnership.
JA: You trade with TV rights. Now you want to produce the broadcasts for the 2008 European Football Championship in Switzerland. This brings you up against the Swiss broadcasting and television company, SRG SRR idée suisse.
GN: In 2002, we were responsible for live transmissions from the World Cup in Japan and Korea. And we produced the live transmissions of the World Cup in Germany. So it was only natural for us to apply for the rights to the European Football Championship in Switzerland and Austria. We have proved that we can do it.
JA: What is the next move in the billion-dollar poker game for football broadcasting rights?
GN: Unfortunately, we did not get the rights for the 2010 World Cup. They went to the five big European countries that put in a joint bid: France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Great Britain. This will have a serious impact on our company. It will have to change – deals like the one we had with FIFA are a thing of the past. We will have to open up new business sectors. We are working on this at the moment.
JA: Will the price of football increase further?
GN: Probably. It certainly won’t fall. But it’s unlikely that we will see the kind of price increases that occurred when the Kirch Group appeared on the scene. Kirch had sensational ideas. But the expansion of Pay-TV in Germany is reaching limits. In England and in France, sports coverage by the state-run TV stations is much more limited and the quality is poorer. This is why people are prepared to pay.
JA: Do you watch Swiss television?
GN: The broadcasts of skiing events are top class. The best Swiss presenters can hold their own with the Germans.
JA: How do you feel in Switzerland?
GN: I have been here for twenty years. That speaks for itself. I am going to stay in Switzerland. It is the ideal place for me. In terms of taxation levels, it is not the wisest choice to live in Zurich as I do, but it is worth it. It makes me furious when people in Germany accuse me of living in a tax haven. I have never changed my quality of life for tax reasons. Zurich is much too good a city to leave. This is true for my family as well. We have everything on our doorstep.
JA: What else do you like about Zurich?
GN: Its compactness – and a certain anonymity. This city offers a wide range of cultural possibilities in a very small space. At the same time it is in the middle of Europe, with excellent transport links so that I can be anywhere in Europe very quickly. This is very important for me.
JA: Do you follow developments in Switzerland closely?
GN: No. I am not a political person. When I was in Germany I also kept out of politics. People keep trying to enlist me for their political purposes but I systematically refuse to allow this.
JA: Do you read Swiss newspapers?
GN: I read the Tages-Anzeiger, Neue Zürcher Zeitung and Die Weltwoche. And of course I also read the tabloid Blick, that’s part of football. As a private person I really appreciate that there is not such an aggressive media scene and gossip reporting. This won’t change because it is a small country. On the other hand, as a rights trader I am not entirely happy about it because there is no competition here. This is not good for the football clubs either. SRG SSR idée suisse is very dominant and there is no alternative.
JA: How many games do you watch a year?
GN: I am a TV consumer. I watch a lot of international matches in the stadium, Bundesliga [German national league] less so. At the weekend I watch German and Swiss league games on television and during the week I watch European Cup games, so I am pretty well informed.
JA: And you never get bored?
GN: Not at all – although I can’t manage to watch every game for the full 90 minutes as in the past, when I watched even lousy games right to the end.
JA: Even as a shrewd businessman you are still passionate about football, where millions are at stake for your company.
'I always root for Switzerland – except when they are playing against Germany.'
GN: When the matches begin, the deals have already been done. And the point comes when the economic aspect fades and passion for the game takes over again. There are 240 people from many different countries in our firm. And without personal passion I could not do all this. In my life I have always only done what I enjoyed and fortunately I have always been able to choose. If it was all just routine and the fulfilment of contractual obligations, I could not go on doing television. I am interested in football today in a way that is very different from my playing days. It makes far greater demands than it used to and I still find it fascinating.
JA: Football does not play such a central role here as it does in other countries.
GN: I noticed that when I was playing for Grasshoppers [Zurich football team]. I had been transferred from Real Madrid to Zurich. There was no real passion here. The players were happy with the little they got. But this has changed a little now – thanks to the children of immigrants and the fact that many young Swiss players are playing abroad. They are more ambitious now, and the youth development system is probably better than in Germany.
JA: Do you sometimes notice that the attitude to Germans here is not very positive?
GN: Sometimes Germans come up to me on the street and say: excuse me, Mr Netzer, can you explain why it’s possible for you to criticise the Swiss national team on television and still be accepted – and we cannot do this even after thirty years in Switzerland? This is a huge compliment. All I can say is that I have never gone out of my way to achieve this. I don’t have an integration strategy.
JA: …and you have never spoken dialect!
GN: Yes, that’s the worst thing, that’s so embarrassing! In Switzerland I present myself as I am. Just like I did on the football pitch. I don’t fawn on people or do anything in particular to make them like me. I am pleased that that’s the way it is. But it hasn’t always been like that. When I started working as a TV commentator, there were letters complaining about this German guy who was knocking the national team. When I finished, the same people were singing my praises. In the end they accepted me for the same reason that German TV viewers accept me. Unlike at least 90 per cent of TV commentators, I don’t act a particular part.
JA: Are you a fan of the Swiss national team?
GN: Absolutely! I always root for Switzerland – except when they are playing against Germany. Germany is where I have my roots and where I have close ties. That won’t change even after another twenty years in Switzerland.
This conversation was held in German and translated into English by Paul Knight.
Günter Netzer was born in Mönchengladbach on 1 September 1944. A Mexican newspaper claims that his shoe size is 12. Netzer himself says it is 10. In 1972 he was European Champion with the German team and two years later a World Cup winner. He played for Borussia Mönchengladbach and Real Madrid and ended his career with Grasshoppers Zurich. For a short period he was General Manager of Hamburg SV. Today he is co-owner of the little-known company Infront Sports & Media in Zug, which paid 2.8 billion Swiss francs for the broadcasting rights for the 2002 and 2006 World Cups. He also makes frequent television appearances as a football commentator. He chose Zurich as his residence many years ago. One of his favourite places in Zurich is the Hotel Baur au Lac. His favourite restaurants are the Kronenhalle, Petermanns Kunststuben and Emilio. He is a favourite of the arts reviewers but he does not read books. ‘I don’t have the patience,’ he says. As a young man his weakness for Ferraris caused quite a sensation. He still keeps a collection of model cars in his office, but he has since changed his choice of colour, preferring to get to work these days in a black Maranello. ‘My wife says I am too old to be driving a little red car.’