Football: Germany is finally losing the connection

Opinion deep crisis

Germany is now finally losing the connection in football

As of: 5:06 p.m. | Reading time: 2 minutes

Flick under criticism – almost 70 percent want a new national coach

National coach Hansi Flick lost the trust of German football fans a year before the European Championships at home. In a fan survey commissioned by SID, the majority of respondents would like a new head coach to be selected for the DFB.

German football is on the ground. The national team stumbles from defeat to defeat, the U21s make a fool of themselves at the European Championships and the U19s don’t even go there. Something has to be done urgently.

It’s a bad summer for German football. A summer that brutally reveals its problems. A year before the European Championships at home, everyone can see that Germany has lost touch. And is only average in an international comparison. The top of the world is very far away, a new “summer fairy tale” in the coming year is currently only wishful thinking. The German Football Association (DFB) is experiencing one of the most severe and threatening crises in its history.

The national team has recently shown sobering performances in three international matches, the world association Fifa published the new world rankings on Thursday: Germany has fallen to 15th place, behind Mexico, Morocco and the USA, among others. The desolate elimination of the U21s at the European Championships in Georgia in the middle of this week shows how enormous the deficiencies are in the youngsters. This team should save the reputation of German football. Mission failed.

Just one point from three preliminary round games in a group with the Czech Republic, Israel and England is a sign of failure for the previous title holder. The U21 missed out on qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Injuries to several players are a reason, but not an excuse. England was superior even with a B-Elf.

There is a risk of a lack of competitiveness

Even though the U17s recently became European champions, the DFB and those responsible around sports director Rudi Völler are now under enormous pressure. Nations like England and France have hastened. The German U19s didn’t even qualify for the European Championships in Malta, which begin next Monday – for the fourth time in a row they are absent from Europe’s most important tournament. That’s embarrassing and has consequences, because the talents absolutely need to compete with the best nations on the continent for their development.

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After all, the first steps in terms of change have been taken, the DFB has decided to reform the forms of play in children’s football. In the association they have to be critical of each other. It needs to work closely with clubs to train talent better. And finding ways to keep them connected. Most recently, promising players decided after years in the DFB youth teams to play for the senior national teams of another country.

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If the association does not change anything or not enough with the clubs, German football is threatened with a lack of competitiveness in the long term.

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