In football, coaches’ employment relationships are often extremely short. Some end abruptly. And some end in scandals.
The third-division professional team VfL Osnabrück from Lower Saxony is currently undergoing such a scandal. It concerns Marco Antwerpen, their former head coach, and Frank Döpper, Antwerpen’s former assistant at VfL. A serious accusation hangs in the air: attempted match manipulation.
Antwerpen and Döpper had been dismissed by VfL only a few months into their tenure, at the end of May 2025, exceptionally, without notice – under contracts that were valid until 2027. They defended themselves with wrongful-dismissal suits.
Now the Osnabrück Labour Court announced the ruling: The terminations were legally compliant. Antwerpen’s and Döppers’ lawsuits were dismissed. The verdict had been due to be announced days earlier, but due to server problems it failed—the file, kept only electronically, could not be opened.
Immoral Directive
The backstory is eventful and goes back to May 24, 2025, the final between VfL Osnabrück and TuS Blau-Weiß Lohne for the Lower Saxony Cup (NFV). VfL Osnabrück lost 4-2.
The accusation, according to the labor court: One week before the game, Antwerpen, in the presence of Döpper and other members of the coaching staff, allegedly asked the then rehabilitation coach of VfL Osnabrück to tell a player loaned to Lohne not to participate in the final, otherwise he would not need to return to VfL at season’s end.
The head coach had reiterated the “seriousness of the requested communication” to the rehab coach a few days before the final and added the remark that “the player should feign an injury”.
There was no manipulation in the end: the player played in the final, scoring a goal for Blau-Weiß Lohne. Antwerpen and Döpper were dismissed by VfL Osnabrück.
At the end of August 2025, the DFB’s sports court issued a ban on coaching for both coaches due to unsporting conduct. For Antwerpen it was twelve months, for Döpper three.
The DFB Federal Court did not view it as targeted, deliberate manipulation; instead, it described it as unfortunate misunderstandings, negligence, talk that spiraled out of control and bluster.
End of November 2025, the DFB Federal Court revised both rulings in an appeal hearing, reducing the ban on Antwerpen to three months, completely lifting it against Döpper. The court again did not find targeted, deliberate manipulation, but rather unfortunate misunderstandings, negligence, talk that spiraled out of control and bluster.
However, according to Oskar Riedmeyer, the chair of the DFB Federal Court, in the reasoning of the judgment, Antwerpen must be blamed that “he did not adequately watch that his remarks could be misunderstood and taken seriously and thereby negligently risked that the competition would be interfered with”.
In mid-March 2026, the dismissal-protection hearing then began before the Second Chamber of the Osnabrück Labour Court. Antwerpen and Döpper denied the accusation of match manipulation. The evidence gathering was extensive. It is now established: Antwerpen and Döpper lose to VfL.
The chamber sees it as proven for both the former head coach and his former co-trainer that they, “targeted and seriously intended to influence the final match through unauthorized influence on the loaned player, in order to gain an advantage for VfL Osnabrück.” This behavior justifies the terminations.
Judgment Not Yet Legally Binding
The Osnabrück Labour Court thus evaluates the dubious events around the NFV Cup final in May 2025 differently from the DFB Federal Court.
The judgment is not yet legally binding: Antwerpen and Döpper have one month to appeal to the Lower Saxony Higher Court. If an appeal is filed, additional evidence could be presented, new witnesses could be heard, or old ones could be questioned again, says Judge Christian Hageböke, director of the Osnabrück Labour Court. The scandal still lingers, then.
VfL Osnabrück remains tight-lipped about the first-instance ruling: “We will not comment,” says Malik Scherz, Head of Media & Communications.
