FIFA President Gianni Infantino (left) also meets with DFB President Bernd Neuendorff ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.Image: www.imago-images.de / imago images

world cup 2022

herald tall

The World Cup in Qatar showed us that the German soccer Was overwhelmed by his international sports policy. The controversy over the “One Love” captain’s armband was half-hearted and reminiscent of the measures taken by an arrogant moral police. There is no vision for the future of world football and no strategy to deal with Qatar, the host of the World Cup.

Someone else’s vision. So nothing changes in FIFA and next year on March 16, Gianni Infantino will be elected for his third term at the 73rd FIFA Congress in Kigali, Rwanda. Possibly unanimously and certainly also without opponents, as the DFB missed the deadline for another nomination. much to the annoyance of fan In Germany, because in our study we found that 60.5 percent of the fans surveyed would have wanted exactly this from the DFB.

Fan researcher Harald Lange.Image: University of Würzburg

Fans want changes to world federation FIFA

From the perspective of the fans, world football is in urgent need of reforms and new ideas. For example, in our Qatar study, 71.1 percent of fans surveyed agreed that FIFA is abusing its monopoly in football. It is difficult to look for alternatives, because from the point of view of fans, UEFA is hardly different from FIFA. With regard to the topic of social responsibility, most fans (35.9 percent) see the EU on the same level as FIFA, which deserves criticism.

Alternatives and authentic philosophy are missing. Since even the DFB, which is moral but incapable of real protest, is rated even worse in many values ​​than the World Football Association, this World Cup was also a complete success for FIFA. While host nation Qatar got its money’s worth, the DFB made an embarrassing sporting-political crash landing. In international sports diplomacy we are now on the fringes and football is seeing ground in Germany, the DFB’s half-hearted course has further eroded trust and credibility.

DFB president Bernd Neuendorff (right) sits with national coach Hansi Flick at the World Cup draw for the preliminary round in Doha.Image: dpa / Christian Charisius

After an unsuccessful appearance in Qatar, it will be difficult for SPD politician and DFB president Bernd Neuendorff to be taken seriously among the politically powerful in world football. Instead of launching more DFB campaigns, it would be wise to line up. Maybe Norway, Denmark or Australia develop a strategy to improve minor association football. Then you should just live with it. Nothing can happen now. The image that has been lost in the early stages of this World Cup is a big deal for him.

DFB bows before FIFA and is naïve when there is a problem

Since the DFB only came up with the idea of ​​having the crucial home straight at the opening of the tournament, given the rush there was no time to think of something better. The “One Love” and “Close Mouth” campaigns were hastily put together and poorly thought out campaigns. Harmless threatening gestures on the part of a football association, although it has the largest number of members in the world, has not been able to penetrate the values ​​at the base through its top and leadership.

There you operate first and foremost according to the mechanisms of power that are common in football. FIFA is paranoid and when it comes to solving the federation’s internal problems, everything goes above the interests of the most powerful men Bundesliga,

This notion is underlined by the presence of the DFB president at the press conference in Frankfurt on December 13, 2022. When it comes to assessing the mood at the grassroots level of German football, Bernd Neuendorff appears downright naïve when he reflects on the enthusiasm of the fans: