Daum is damned by drugs test

Germany will not appoint Christoph Daum as their next national coach after it was revealed yesterday that he had failed a drugs test. The German Football Association made the announcement after Daum was sacked by his club Bayer Leverkusen.

Germany will not appoint Christoph Daum as their next national coach after it was revealed yesterday that he had failed a drugs test. The German Football Association made the announcement after Daum was sacked by his club Bayer Leverkusen.

Daum had been scheduled to take over from the caretaker coach Rudi Völler next summer, but he returned a positive test on a hair sample. He had agreed to a hair analysis following persistent rumours that he had been a drug user, which he denied. "I am personally very concerned," the DFB president Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder said. "The whole thing is a human tragedy. I trusted Christoph Daum over all the years and also his assurances that nothing was true over the rumours."

Völler will also take over the Leverkusen hot-seat in the short term, but is certain to come under intense pressure to stay on with the national team. He has already led Germany to wins in all of his three matches in charge, including their victory at Wembley which ended the reign of Kevin Keegan as England manager.

Leverkusen's general manager Reiner Calmund, who announced the test result at a press conference to end Daum's four-year term in charge, said the coach had found out about the positive result on Friday afternoon and said he was staggered at the huge blow. He read out a statement by Daum, which said: "I do not believe this test. I want to have a second test but because of this test I am not able to do the job any longer."

The former Wimbledon, Norwich and Bournemouth striker Efan Ekoku could make his debut for struggling Sheffield Wednesday against Birmingham at Hillsborough today if international clearance on a season-long loan from Grasshoppers Zurich goes through in time.