The German team seeks to focus on football and not politics

The German team seeks to focus on football and not politics

Germany no longer wants heroes, it wants winners.

The days of Germany’s national team making political gestures at soccer tournaments appear to be over. Coach Julian Nagelsmann stated that he wants his players to concentrate on playing and leave political statements aside.

“We saw in Qatar (at the 2022 World Cup) that too many political issues can affect a team,” Nagelsmann told NTV channel on Tuesday. “I think we have all learned from that and we should learn. That’s why we have experts who deal with these things and should deal with them. We are experts in sports and we take care of sports.”

Germany said goodbye to the World Cup in Qatar at the first opportunity, a tournament marked by criticism of the host country’s human rights record. Many German fans called for a boycott of the tournament — some bars in Berlin and beyond refused to show it — and players and politicians alike made gestures in support of equal rights and tolerance.

German Minister Nancy Faeser wore a “One Love” bracelet alongside FIFA President Gianni Infantino, while Germany players covered their mouths for a team photo before their first World Cup match to protest the FIFA’s crackdown on the armband, widely seen as a gesture of rebuke to Qatar.

Nagelsmann’s comments Tuesday echoed statements last week by captain Joshua Kimmich, who expressed regret for the team’s gestures in Qatar. “They took the joy out of the tournament,” he said.

“It is not our job to express ourselves politically,” Kimmich said.

Human rights will be back on the table as Saudi Arabia is about to be confirmed as the host of the 2034 World Cup at a FIFA congress on December 11. Saudi Arabia is the only candidate. The RTL channel reported that the German football federation will vote in favor of the kingdom as host despite criticism from unions and human rights groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and FairSquare.

But Nagelsmann says human rights issues should not worry his team.

“In the end, it is not me as a coach nor us as a team who make the decision (of the World Cup host) but rather the decisions are made in completely different areas, in different spheres. It doesn’t have much to do with us. We have to prepare properly wherever the tournament is held,” said Nagelsmann. “I think it’s obvious that not everything is perfect in Saudi Arabia. But again, it’s not up to us to evaluate it.”

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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.

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