Gladbach’s international Jonas Hofmann reacted calmly to the criticism of the wrong color nuances. “Everyone knows what is meant,” said the 30-year-old
Source: dpa/Sebastian Gollnow
What social responsibility does the national team have? Shortly before the soccer World Cup in Qatar, the focus is on the captain’s armband, which is based on the rainbow flag. Is it enough as a symbol? Oliver Bierhoff speaks of a “balancing act”.
ZTwo months before the German national team’s first World Cup game against Japan, the debate about the appropriate attitude towards tournament hosts Qatar continues. The current focus of criticism is the captain’s armband, intended as a symbol for the DFB team and other major football nations such as England, France or the Netherlands, with a color scheme based on the rainbow flag. Top stars like Manuel Neuer, England’s center forward Harry Kane or France’s world champion goalkeeper Hugo Lloris want to wear them in Qatar as a clearly visible symbol on their upper arms.
“That seems weak. It’s not even the Pride flag, it has other colors on it. If it’s the only thing that comes down to attitude from the DFB, that would be embarrassing to catastrophic. I expect from the DFB and I also think that there will be more,” said the representative of the fan organization “Our Curve”, Dario Minden, the “Tagesspiegel”.
Minden became the face of Qatar’s critics after a verbal confrontation with the Qatari ambassador to Germany at a DFB congress last Monday. “I have sex with other men. That is normal. Get used to it or get out of football,” Minden said to the diplomat on the podium and received a lot of praise online.
“It’s about the fact that we’re the same,” says Flick
The legal situation for members of the LGBTIQ* community in Qatar is currently the focus of criticism – even more than the critical situation for guest workers. Community representatives have so far advised against traveling to Qatar. The English abbreviation stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans people, intersex and queer people. The asterisk is a placeholder for additional identities and genders.
The national players are confronted with the topic practically every day in the context of the current international matches in the Nations League against Hungary and England. Not an easy situation to solve, as Hansi Flick stated. “It’s easy to always criticize when you’re sitting somewhere and not making the decision,” said the national coach before the Hungary game in Leipzig this Friday evening (8:45 p.m., in the WELT sports ticker). “The point now is that it’s not just the colors of the rainbow, but all of them. It means everyone, every single person who is sitting here, who is in the world. That’s what it’s about, that we’re the same,” argued Flick.
The national players were made aware of the Qatar problem by the DFB in several workshops. “It won’t be the only action we’re seeing. We try to do our part. Simply looking away would be the worse evil,” said Jonas Hofmann from Gladbach at the presentation of the captain’s armband with the “One Love” imprint. The 30-year-old professional reacted calmly to the criticism of the wrong color nuances. “A few colors of the rainbow were in it. Everyone knows what is meant,” said Hofmann.
The object of contention
Source: dpa/Sebastian Gollnow
At the beginning of the week at the association congress on the human rights situation in Qatar, DFB director Oliver Bierhoff made clear the conflict for football professionals between sport and social expectations. “We have to be careful to find this balancing act between responsibility and the awareness that we as humans have. On the other hand, we come across as the German national soccer team. We represent our country, we want to play football successfully,” said the 54-year-old.
National player Nico Schlotterbeck doesn’t see the footballers as the first thing to do. “In my opinion, we players can’t influence much anyway, it’s primarily a matter for the officials and politics. We athletes did not award the tournament to Qatar,” said the 22-year-old to the editorial network Germany. The task of the players is to have maximum success at the World Cup. Football must be there for everyone and be open to everyone. “He stands for diversity,” said the Borussia Dortmund defender.
