The Swiss Football Association dismisses media chief Marco von Ah

How the Corriere del Ticino and Tagesanzeiger.ch writethe Swiss Football Association and its long-time head of communications are going their separate ways with immediate effect. The new SFV President Dominique Blanc and Secretary General Robert Breiter have informed Marco von Ah on Thursday that they will henceforth do without his services.

The separation comes a year after the World Cup in Russia, during which the national team and the media executives involved were harshly criticized for communication weaknesses. The main criticism concerned the handling of the so-called "double eagle" affair. The SFV's communications department did not cut a happy figure and failed both in advance and afterwards to take the communications scepter firmly to itself. There was also criticism of national coach Vladimir Petkovic's shirking of the press conference after the elimination. In the aftermath of the World Cup, another fatal communication slip occurred when general secretary Alex Miescher called for a ban on dual nationals in the team - and didn't even seem to be informed that the scolded captain Granit Xhaka doesn't even have two passports.

The newspaper Corriere del Ticino interprets the separation as a consequence of the Heusler report. In the report, former FC Basel president Bernhard Heusler examined the structures surrounding the national team after the unrest surrounding the World Cup. In the report published last November, Heusler admittedly refrained from discussing personnel. "But anyone who knows him can assume that he has spoken plainly internally," suspected the View.

An official successor has reportedly not yet been determined. (hae)