When Schalke went looking for a new manager, and eventually pinpointed the man they wanted in the form of Markus Weinzierl, they were not expecting to have to pay compensation (of sorts) to more than one club.
However, the move that brought Weinzierl from Augsburg set off a chain reaction as they too had to replace their manager, sending a ripple effect down through the leagues.
According to ESPN, Dirk Schuster was then hired from Darmstadt to fill the vacancy at Augsburg, while Norbert Meier made his way to Darmstadt. That left Arminia Bielefeld without a manager, so they opted to hire Rudiger Rehm of Sonnenhof Grossaspach.
They decided to hire SV Eichede's Oliver Zapel, who then lured Jorn Grosskopf from poor old Wedeler TSV, who had only just hired Zapel a few weeks earlier.
Image: Schalke head coach Markus Weinzierl reacts disappointed during the German Bundesliga soccer match between FC Schalke 04 and Bayern Munich. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
They were the team left holding the can, unfortunately, as they had agreed to include a clause in his contract that would allow him to leave and join a higher-ranked club. As a team competing in the fifth tier of the German system (broken into regional zones, in this case the Oberliga Hamburg) they struggled to find a replacement in time and had to start the season without a permanent manager in place.
Speaking to the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper, Wedeler director of sport Franck Ockens stated that the difficulties they had in finding a new manager were worthy of some form of compensation, so "I sent an email to Christian Heidel [sporting director of Schalke 04] asking him either to send us 50 crates of beer or organise a friendly with us."
Clearly aware of the effect that their poaching of a manager had on the other clubs around the leagues, Schalke decided to honour the request and, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine, the crates of beer were delivered as asked. Wedeler have secured only six points from their first seven games however, in a turn of events which may or may not be related to the beer.
This precedent may mean that Steve Bruce owes Hull some beer, but we're not entirely sure on that.
Via ESPN
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