Ballack apologizes to Loew, keeps captain's armband

Source: Agencies  |   2008-11-2  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

MICHAEL Ballack will remain Germany's captain after apologizing and overcoming his differences with coach Joachim Loew during a private talk, the German football federation said on Friday.

The federation took nearly 24 hours to give a statement on the meeting that took place on Thursday evening at its headquarters in Frankfurt.

"Michael Ballack remains my captain," Loew said in the statement. "But even as captain he has to respect our rules."

Ballack caused an uproar last week when he used a newspaper interview to publicly criticize Loew selection of players for the national team and accuse the coach of showing disrespect to some older players.

Loew reacted by requesting the Chelsea midfielder to report to Germany and explain his statements. Ballack flew to Frankfurt with Chelsea's permission on Thursday and returned to London immediately after the meeting with Loew.

The federation said Ballack and Loew had "established a basis of mutual trust for future cooperation" after Ballack's apology had cleared the way to resolve the dispute.

Ballack had already announced his intention to apologize but Loew refrained from confirming Ballack's position as captain until talking to him personally. "I realized that it was not proper to go public," Ballack said in the statement. "I apologized to Joachim Loew for that. He is the coach, he makes the decisions and we all have to accept them."

Loew said he was pleased that Ballack was staying on as captain and that he was available "to help us achieve our common goals" in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

The coach praised Ballack as an "excellent national team player" who had a major role in recent successes - such as third place at the 2006 World Cup at home and the runner-up finish in June at the European Championship.

Ballack took issue with Loew for barely playing veteran midfielder Torsten Frings in the last two World Cup qualifiers.