Whe broadcasts the next two matches of the national soccer team? A few weeks before the first international matches since the World Cup preliminary round, the broadcasting stations have not yet been determined. ARD, ZDF and RTL were just as unable to answer the question of the division as the German Football Association (DFB). The DFB selection meets Peru on March 25 (8:45 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for international matches) in Mainz. On March 28th (8:45 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for international matches) the neighborhood duel with Belgium follows in Cologne.
Until the European Championships at home in summer 2024, the national team only has to play friendlies. The legal situation in international matches is complicated. So far there has only been one confirmed contract between the European Football Union (UEFA) and RTL. The private broadcaster already broadcast several matches last year. Although there was no signed contract, the second was also on the air in 2022. The public broadcaster broadcast the matches against England and Italy, among other things.
Confirmation from ARD and ZDF is missing
There is still no official confirmation from ARD and ZDF on an agreement on the broadcasting rights to an extensive international match package with UEFA and the agency CAA Eleven. This also includes games played by the DFB team in the Nations League and friendlies. RTL, on the other hand, had already announced in May that it would broadcast most of the German international matches by 2028. The acquired rights include half of the matches in the Nations League, the qualifiers for the European Championship and the World Cup and the test international matches. According to dpa information, ARD and ZDF want to share the other half of the 60 encounters.
Meanwhile, former DFB managing director Oliver Bierhoff believes in a World Cup triumph for the German national team at the 2030 World Cup. Jamal Musiala from Bayern Munich, currently 19 years old, will then act as captain of the selection of the German Football Association (DFB). In an article for the book “Next.2030”, Bierhoff outlines a future of football shaped by technical innovations. The 54-year-old sees neuro-centric training and artificial intelligence as factors in the success of the German World Cup team in 2030. These included accurate sleep planning, training in the Metaverse, and 99 percent accurate injury predictions.
According to Bierhoff, in order to win the title in seven years’ time, “the ‘performance optimizers’ in the DFB team, to which I belonged for 18 years, are “tinkering”. They take care of core areas such as fitness, data and game analysis, sports medicine, neuro-centric training, sports psychology and so on.” Every “stimulus, no matter how small,” is then “precisely planned and tailored to the current fitness profile of a player.”
It is even conceivable that the professionals of the future will receive information during a game via “ear-ins”. The first start-ups are developing in this area – “whether it will be allowed to be worn during games is another question: it depends on UEFA and FIFA regulations,” wrote Bierhoff, who was national team manager in 2014 became world champion.
“Football remains a complex game”
The core of all future technological solutions is “a data-based player management system for coaching and functional staff. Today, the tool only exists in a raw version and is being fully developed. A (fictitious) name for the future could be: DSD (Dashboard for Smart Decisions) of the DFB Academy.” But Bierhoff qualifies: “Of course, my successors at the DFB will not be able to plan a World Cup victory in 2030 exactly either. Football remains a complex game in which many components and chance play a major role.” It is also clear “that the decisive goal in the World Cup final is not scored by artificial intelligence or a computer program”.
The publishers of the book “Next.2030”, in which Bierhoff and 32 other well-known authors outline developments in various areas of life up to 2030, are Prof. Dr. Ann-Kristin Achtleitner from the Technical University of Munich, member of the supervisory boards of various listed companies, and Telekom Managing Director Hagen Rickmann. The book is available now from Amazon KDP.
