Germany captain Philipp Lahm has caused quite a stir with a new book where he criticizes two former Germany coaches and other colleagues.
The German football federation (DFB) said Thursday it will meet with Philipp Lahm to discuss the ''sensitivity of dealing with internal team matters'' after parts of the book ''The Subtle Difference'' were published in German daily Bild.
Lahm criticizes former Germany coaches Rudi Voeller and Juergen Klinsmann among others, and the book has caused widespread anger among those mentioned in it.
The DFB plans to meet with Lahm before Germany's 2012 European Championship qualifier at home to Austria on Sept. 2.
DFB president Theo Zwanziger said ''our national team players must be aware of their special responsibility to the public ... I think Philipp has made a mistake.''
Lahm apologized on Thursday, saying ''I'm sorry'' in a statement on the DFB website.
''I obviously did not want to impinge on or even offend Voeller, Klinsmann or anyone else,'' the Bayern Munich defender said, apologizing for the ''misunderstandings.''
However, Lahm left little room for misunderstandings when he wrote that Klinsmann - the current United States coach - showed little tactical awareness during the 47-year-old's unsuccessful time as Bayern coach.
''The players had to get together before games to discuss how we wanted to play at all,'' Lahm wrote. ''After six or eight weeks, all the players already knew it wouldn't work with Klinsmann. The rest of the season was damage limitation.''
The Germany captain also criticized Felix Magath - who won the double with Bayern in 2005 and 2006 - for putting too much pressure on the players.
''Some players don't respond to pressure anymore,'' Lahm wrote. ''His tricks don't catch on when you know them already.''
Lahm described Germany's 2008 European Championship team as a ''mess with griping on the pitch'' with ''too many egos.''
He criticized Voeller for ''amazingly relaxed'' training sessions during the 2004 European Championship.
''Training would be for perhaps an hour a day, and then everyone was allowed back to their rooms. I think that many were using Playstations at the time. There were no tactical discussions. There was no video analysis of the next opponent ... The only thing we talked about were mistakes that the coach noticed.''
Voeller responded by saying Lahm's decision to reveal inner workings of team affairs ''shows that he has no decency.''
''What's he's said now about Klinsmann, for example, is an impertinence,'' Voeller said. ''I'm curious to see how the national team bosses handle it.''
Germany team manager Oliver Bierhoff says Lahm will remain captain.
''We did want players who speak their minds. In this case, however, Philipp has crossed the line,'' Bierhoff said. ''But after going through the whole book, it's not now an issue for us to strip him of the captaincy, as some have speculated.''
Germany coach Joachim Loew said there were passages that he did not like ''because a player is openly judging some coaches who have long been successful. But we'll talk about that it the coming week.''
