Manuel Neuer (right) has to comfort Jamal Musiala. The DFB team was eliminated in the group stage of the World Cup.Image: www.imago-images.de / imago images
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harald long
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In his weekly column, fan researcher Harald Lange writes exclusively on watson about the things that are currently moving football in Germany.
12/31/2022, 10:00 am12/31/2022, 10:01 am
While football is booming worldwide and new paths to the international top are being found in many countries, German football lacks a vision. The DFB has been in a permanent crisis for many years. Sporty and sport-political. The World Cup in Qatar noticeably accelerated this negative trend again.
In terms of sport, the national team has finally slipped into mediocrity. The unimaginative end in the preliminary round after the 2018 World Cup and the 2021 European Championship confirms that the wrong decisions have been made for a long time. The same applies to DFB sports policy. In this respect, too, one has, among other things, because of the embarrassing symbolic actions (“OneLove captain’s armband” and “mouth to team photo”), peppy and naively sidelined.
Fans and spectators acknowledge this negative series by turning away and recently even some of the sponsors have become restless. The internationally active retail group Rewe has left the DFB prematurely.
“If we don’t want to get used to failure, we need a radical change of perspective.”
German football is characterized by fear and uncertainty
The weakness of the DFB gave us a much-criticized task force of powerful sports managers in the Bundesliga in the first few days after the World Cup. They should compensate for the resignation of the sporty architect and idea generator Oliver Bierhoff and set the cornerstones for a new beginning.
Whoever came up with the idea, this decision fits into the picture of long-standing fear and uncertainty. It has nothing to do with courage and vision. And that’s exactly what we need in German football! Enormous courage and an infectious vision that can ignite in this great football country!
“For fans in Asia or North America, the league is more like a collection of farm teams.”
The Bundesliga is being degraded more and more to a training league for international talent and only rarely manages to develop talent for the national team. It is generating solid numbers nationally. International marketing lags far behind. Fans in Asia or North America tend to see the league as a collection of farm teams. Talented players will sooner or later switch to Bayern or the big clubs in England, Spain or France. Exciting competition is different.
German football wants to keep stewing in its own juice
The construction sites for the successful football of the future are huge. Most recently, the ratings for the World Cup had fallen by more than 50 percent and the football atmosphere in the country is underground. So the question is allowed, why does this DFB want to stew so persistently in its own juice?
Why do you shy away from a ruthless and open analysis? Who is able to clearly address the mistakes of the past and who is able to show the association new ways? Who is able to think outside the box? Who has a feel for fan expectations? Who can learn from other sports and other footballers? Who manages to formulate a viable vision for the future of football? A vision that is not immediately exposed as a product of a PR agency? We need a vision for football that is supported by the idea of competitive sport!
If we don’t want to get used to failure, we need a radical change of perspective. More sport and less commerce. More ideal than material values. More greedy for success than for money. More courage, creativity, solidarity and a sense of community. Basically it’s not that difficult. Unless you want to continue stewing in your own juice.
In his weekly column, fan researcher Harald Lange writes exclusively on watson about the things that are currently moving football in Germany.
Money, goals and titles are only valuable in football if they can be cheered on by the crowd. The current DFB Cup winner, Rasenballsport Leipzig, is only able to captivate the specialist audience and the football-related lay public to a limited extent. In the first round of the DFB Cup, the Leipzig home game, which was broadcast live on ZDF, attracted just 2.77 million viewers. A minus record when broadcasting games in the DFB Pokal.
