Never change a winning team

Michael Falb

Michael Falb is under stress. The next day, the team is travelling to Hamburg for a friendly tournament, and there is still a lot to prepare. Nevertheless, the passionate coach makes time for a short interview. He apologises that he has to eat something on the side and orders a soup and a large coffee. Michael Falb took the blind footballers from the SFZ support centre in the Flemming area into his care in 2009 and celebrated his greatest success with them this year: Third place in the national blind football league. This is not the only reason why Michael Falb is the man of the week for us. In this interview, he talks about his work with the visually impaired, the only sport in which they can move freely and his friendship with FC St. Pauli.

Michael, we know from Sepp Herberger: The ball is round and a game lasts 90 minutes. Is that true?
No, our game lasts 50 minutes - two halves of 25 minutes each.

And what about other football proverbs? "You have to be eleven friends" is probably not true either...?
No, that's not true either. We only have five. You have to be five friends - four outfield players, one goalkeeper. The goalkeeper is the only person on the pitch who can see.

What other differences are there to "conventional" football?
The pitch is as big as a handball pitch. It is also played on handball goals. As in basketball, there are personal fouls and team fouls. Anyone who commits five personal fouls is out of the game and may no longer be substituted. Only another player can be substituted for this player. From the fourth team foul per half, there is always a penalty kick from the eight-metre spot. It starts all over again after half-time. And just like in basketball, you can change as often as you like. One important rule is the word "VOY". It's Spanish and means: I'm coming. Every player who is close to the ball and is not in control of the ball must say this so that everyone knows where the opponents are.

Your goalkeeper is the only one who can see. How do the other players orientate themselves, how do they find the goal, the ball and how do they manage not to run into the boards or into a team-mate?
The ball has rattles. It makes a noise, a relatively loud one at that. We've already had the "VOY". But most players don't run into it, that's a training thing. The pitch is divided into thirds: Defence, midfield and attack - just like in "normal" football. The defence is controlled by the goalkeeper. When the ball enters his area, he talks to the outfield players. When the ball is in midfield, there is a midfield guide outside the box who directs the players. Behind the opponent's goal is the attacking guide. This enables the player to recognise where to hit the goal. Only very short, distinctive things are said: right, left, forwards, backwards. Perhaps also metres. If the ball is three metres in front of the player, for example, it says: "In front of three" - forwards and three metres. The attacking guide then only counts the metres down to the goal and gives an indication of when a shooting opportunity arises. It's all a matter of practice. Jörg Fetzer is our most experienced striker. When he hears "six metres", he knows exactly when to take two more steps and then shoot.

Are there also players who can see "normally" and cover their eyes?
No, ten per cent vision is the maximum. Three categories can play: B1, B2 and B3. B3 corresponds to ten per cent vision, B2 corresponds to five per cent visual acuity and B1 are the fully blind players who really can't see anything. In the game, everyone has to be blindfolded. They are given these eye stickers, called eyepads, and another blindfold over them. Then they are all blind.
I think that's a good thing. Sighted people, who perhaps still actively play football, don't have this hearing. They might have a few more problems with orientation at the beginning, but then they have a completely different technical basis. They can learn things much faster because they can copy everything. In the Bundesliga, the really strong players are all those who used to play football normally in a club when they had better eyesight. It easily takes four times as long for a congenitally blind player who has never seen this to learn the same things. That's why it's clearly limited.

In recent years, you have - surprisingly - caught up with the top teams and even won third place this year. How did that happen?
After always playing for the penultimate place, we finished fifth in each of the last two years and came third this year. Just like in "normal" football, our motto is: never change a winning team. As the saying goes: You have to understand each other blindly. That's even more important in our sport. If you always have the same team and people always get into the game better, you win the games. We were able to do that better than other teams. And we trained a lot - twice, sometimes three times a week. You could just tell that we were fitter than our opponents. We always really pushed on in the last quarter of an hour, when the other teams couldn't do any more.
It's the same in blind football as in "normal" football: if you're not in good shape, you'll make mistakes at some point. You can no longer concentrate as well. That's even worse with us. You need maximum concentration to hear the ball and the players and to filter everything out. That's what makes the game so difficult. When you're fitter, the others also make a few mistakes. We've come back from behind in three of our four wins this year. We even trailed three times against Würzburg. You can see that we were simply fit right to the end. Others aren't like that because they don't train as much as we do. This diligence was rewarded. We also had a bit of luck: St Pauli helped us by winning their last two games. That was against the teams ahead of us in the table.

What's possible next season in sporting terms?
Of course, it would be nice if we could confirm our success. Improving our position in the table is almost utopian. Of course it would be fantastic to become champions, no question about it! But the first two teams, Stuttgart and Marburg, are simply too strong for that. We've also lost 3-0 to them this season. They were always that little bit better at the crucial moment. They are simply a step above us in terms of performance density. But even if we finish fourth or fifth, that's just the way it is. We now want to bring in young people. We now have some of them back in training - that's important. Our team captain, Jörg Fetzer, is 43 years old. This is the man who got things moving in Chemnitz when he came from Stuttgart. He became German champion there three times. It's clear that he won't be playing until he's 50. That will now be our next goal: to strengthen the team with young people.
A huge goal - not in sporting terms, but in organisational terms - is to be able to train once a week for one and a half or two hours on artificial turf. That's still a bit of a problem at the moment. VfB Fortuna on Beyerstrasse has kindly given us time to train on their artificial turf in the mornings. We used that once or twice a week. You have to train on the same surface that you play on in the league. The ball rolls differently and sounds different when you train indoors or on artificial turf. Then you need ten minutes or a quarter of an hour in the game to get used to it. That might cost you a goal against.

Real team friendships are rare in team sports. It's obviously different for you. How come?
Yes, it's more relaxed with us. We have the best relationship with St Pauli because they were at the bottom of the table for many years, just like us. They're a team that had to fight hard to achieve a few successes, like us. We've only fought each other for the penultimate place. This is also a team that puts its heart and soul into this sport. Just like us. Of course we want to win - no question about it! Every athlete wants that. But for me and us, it's also about something else: enabling people who are visually impaired and want to play football to do so. That they can simply do the same as a sighted person. To get to grips with the ball, to move freely. St Pauli does a lot of work with young players and sometimes lets 14-year-olds play. They know that: The game will be difficult to win because not just the best players, but everyone plays. But then everyone can really play. Other teams are only interested in the championship and some kind of "glory". They would never let people play who are supposedly worse than other players. We also let everyone play and anyone can start with us. Whether it's always enough for the Bundesliga is another story. It's a way of participating in society to say: "Hey, I want to play football too". That's why we're very much on the same page as St Pauli and both teams are doing a lot to promote the sport.

You are one of only three German blind football teams under the name of a big club. How did you come to join the CFC?
Through Jana Schlegel - a female player. Because women are also allowed to play with us. There are too few women who play the sport to organise their own league. Football was first run under the umbrella of the SFZ support centre, but of course that's a huge financial outlay that we have to make every year: The journeys are long, we need lots of overnight stays and the equipment is expensive. And that's when Jana had the idea of asking the CFC. It would be nice to play under the name of such a club and wear the emblem on our chest. And then she convinced Dr Eberhard Langer, the chairman of the sponsoring association. We've been part of the club since 2008 and the CFC takes care of everything: accommodation, jerseys, balls, headgear - it all costs money.

Now more about you, Michael. How did you get into blind football?
I've been working at the SFZ support centre on Flemmingstraße since 2006 - a large facility with different types of disabilities, but mainly people with visual impairments. They go to school or do an apprenticeship here. I work in the boarding school and look after people from all over Germany who are learning a profession here. We played "normal" football with people who have a visual impairment and I coached them. Then, at the end of 2009, I was asked if I wanted to take over blind football. I've been involved ever since.

Is that something special for you - playing football with blind people?
I've always been looking for challenges. It wouldn't appeal to me to compete with the best team in the world. I like teams that are always at the bottom of the table and have to fight their way up against stronger teams. When I took over the team, we were at the bottom, lost almost everything and hardly scored any goals. That was a challenge: firstly, they're blind and secondly, they're not particularly good. Bringing that forward and still making football fun for the people was a great thing.
And of course it's something special. Who can say that they train blind footballers? Every person you explain that to says: "Huh, I can't even imagine." What's really important to me is to show what people with disabilities who have been shaken by life can achieve. Apart from the fact that these people have poor eyesight, there's nothing different about them. It's a slice of society. You can talk to them, have fun and enjoy life. You don't have to be uptight. Even if you say something wrong - with sighted people, you can put your foot in your mouth from time to time.

Do you think it's also something special for the blind people you look after in the team?
Definitely! Everyone says that. It's the only sport where you can move around freely as a blind person. In every other sport, you have to have a companion with you. Here they have the chance to run around the field alone and freely. That's the greatest thing for them. Jörg Fetzer, for example, is now 43 years old and had a slipped disc. Anyone else would stop playing football, but for him this is one of the greatest things in his life.

Have you ever tried putting on a blindfold and playing football yourself or have you even walked around the city like that?
I've done all of that. Because I work at the centre for the blind, I naturally also do further training in orientation and mobility. You run across the Kaßberg with a stick. That took two days and was really exhausting. I've also played against my footballers myself. Just to get a feel for it. You just have to say: after this training programme, I was shocked at how exhausting it is, even though I've been working in this field for a few years now. Sometimes, even as a trainer, you think: "Oh man, this has to work." No, sometimes it doesn't work because they were also working that day and then you get a day when things aren't going so well. That's why it's good to do it yourself and that was also important for me to understand that the most everyday things are much more strenuous for blind people.

Is there anything you have learnt in your work with blind people? For example, to perceive things in a completely different way?
They say that people categorise new people as likeable or dislikeable after a few seconds - just by looking at them. There's nothing you can do about it, your brain controls that. That's the bad thing about the new world. It's all about appearances: Do I have these trousers on, do I have this jacket on, do I have an iPhone, do I have that... Blind people don't have that. You realise that in conversations with them. They perceive some things completely differently. Because they weren't influenced, they listened. And non-verbal communication doesn't work, you have to express yourself clearly. I learnt that from the blind people.

How long have you lived in the city?
As long as I've been alive - 36 years. I was born here. I never want to leave here. Why would you? I have a nice job. I'm totally happy there because I can do what I've always wanted to do: Working with people. I love the city and know a lot of people here. I still play football myself and I'm involved in Club Heinrich on Heinrich-Schütz-Straße and once helped coach the Niners basketball team for two years... Chemnitz is beautiful.

What do you like about the city?
What I like about Chemnitz is that it's not too big. Berlin, for example, is too big, too superficial. I'm there regularly. I don't feel comfortable there. One person doesn't look after the next. Chemnitz is a nice size - not provincial, but not a huge city either. It's nice and manageable. And Chemnitz is nice and green, which many people don't realise. And you can be in the countryside in no time at all. In Berlin, you're travelling for four hours and still have to work up a nerve. The Saxons are also a great people. I love being a Saxon for life and I let it show. I'll do the devil to hide the fact that I speak Saxon. I'm from here and I'm proud of it.

How do the people of Chemnitz deal with the issue of disability and blindness in particular?
Like everyone else in the world. It's something new for many and people are afraid of new things. Afraid of doing something wrong. Instead of simply going and asking - you can do the same with blind people as with others - many people just stare. Looking from a distance instead of doing something - that's the same in Chemnitz as in all other cities. It's the same everywhere and anyone with a disability can tell you that. That annoys me, but it has nothing to do with Chemnitz.

Do you have to encourage the people of Chemnitz to stand by their city?
That's also the great thing about our team: we lost everything in the first few years and still never gave up. Because we encourage each other. I've never seen a team like it. They never lost their sense of fun. That's unique. I know a lot of teams that would have lost three times. And now the successes are coming. You can always encourage anyone. That's the beauty of life and that's why I do sport. And perhaps the city needs that too. Many people may no longer realise that Chemnitz is an industrial city. It was built with hard labour. Leipzig trades, Dresden squanders the money and who works in Saxony? The people of Chemnitz! That's something to be absolutely proud of and we always let ourselves be put down a bit. We have so many strengths. And that's why we always encourage people! I love being here and that's why I'm proud to be the coach of Chemnitz. We are the only team from the East in blind football! We need courage. You can also see that on the pitch, where we all have to stick together. Michael has completely forgotten that he wanted to eat while he was talking. Now he drinks his now cold coffee in one go and quickly finishes his bowl of soup. Then he's off again - making preparations for Hamburg.

P.S.: The blind footballers from Chemnitzer FC won the indoor championship in Hamburg, their first title in the sport's young history.