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05. 02. 10. - 15:00

Austrian football coach gives up on Moscow job

Gerhard Hitzel, who has been coaching at football club Lokomotiv Moscow’s youth academy, has quit his job and returned home to Forchtenstein in Burgenland's Mattersburg district.

Hitzel, 62, who flew back to Vienna yesterday (Thurs), said club officials and he had mutually agreed to end his contract which had been valid until the end of 2010.

He said cited security and professional reasons for his decision to quit.

Hitzel, who was mysteriously kidnapped in Moscow in early December, said police there had told him he was in danger of being kidnapped again and that his December abduction had not been the result of a case of mistaken identity or attempted robbery.

Rather, they said: "I should look for the reason for it in my personal and professional work and was running the risk of a second one."

He added that club management and he had also had different views about the team’s future.

Hitzel added that he was in no hurry to get another job and would prefer not to have to retire, but, if he did, "so what, why not."

He had said in December that he had thought he would be killed after he was kidnapped in Moscow after being dragged into a car by unknown men as he went to work and held by them for an hour before being dumped on a roadside.

The former youth coach for the Austrian Football Association (ÖFB) was left with bruises and scratches all over his body.

Austrian Times

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