BERLIN German newspapers on Sunday poured scorn on trainer Christoph Daum after he failed a voluntary drug test that cost him two coaching jobs and plunged German soccer into its worst crisis in decades.
Daum stepped down as coach of Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday and was dropped as the incoming coach of the national team after he failed a drug test taken in a futile bid to disprove reports that he used illegal substances. The affair dominated the country's media on Sunday.
"Daum the Liar" wrote Berlin's B.Z. Am Sonntag tabloid over a full front-page photomontage of Daum with a long nose resembling Pinocchio, the fairytale Marionette whose nose grew every time he lied.
Many newspapers that had defended Daum against allegations earlier this month attributed to Bayern Munich Commercial Manager Uli Hoeness that Daum used drugs were especially outraged by the shock news of the positive drug test.
In an emotional news conference two weeks ago, Daum responded to the allegations about his private life by agreeing to undergo hair, blood and urine tests for four substances, among them cocaine and cannabis.
Leverkusen said on Saturday that one of the tests had proved positive but declined to name the substance involved.
Many papers, and even Germany's Justice Minister Hertha Daeubler-Gmelin, had criticized Hoeness.
Daum issued a statement on Saturday saying he was innocent and would prove it in a second test.
He did not appear in public and the media said that he had left the country, with several reports that he had gone to Miami.
"Drugs Daum Is Finished," read the black-framed letters that covered the front page of Bild am Sonntag next to a file picture of the disgraced trainer with his head bowed.
"He took drugs. Leverkusen fires him. Germany job also gone.
He flees to Florida." (Reuter)