The German national team understood that they had to take responsibility off the pitch as well. Before today’s round of 16 against England, she protested against racism.
The German national team has been accused of a lot in recent years. Often rightly. She is aloof, an abstract construct, intangible for her fans, a marketing product of the DFB manager Oliver Bierhoff. Just an empty shell.
And now, the 2021 European Football Championship has just ended its preliminary round, and this team looks like a different one. She wants to win the European Championship, of course, but she broadens the view beyond purely sporting goals. She interferes in major social debates. Since the first group match against France, goalkeeper Manuel Neuer has been wearing a captain’s armband in rainbow colors, a symbol of tolerance and against the exclusion of homosexuals and transsexuals.
Tonight, before the round of 16 at Wembley Stadium, the DFB-Elf did the same as the English team and knelt down. A gesture familiar from the Premiere League, a sign against racism and police violence against black people. The kneeling goes back to American football player Colin Kaepernick, who declared in 2016: “I will not stand up and show pride for a flag that stands for a country that oppresses blacks and other ethnic minorities.”
EM is more political than a sports event in a long time
A sporting event has not been as political as this European Football Championship for a long time. You have to go back a long way in the history of sport to find something comparable. At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico, the two American runners Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists to the sky during the award ceremony. They wore black gloves and wanted to protest against racial discrimination in the USA. Smith and Carlos were immediately suspended; they had to leave Mexico and were banned from competitions.
Today the anti-racism movement is so big and powerful that nobody can stop it. The same applies to the rainbow movement – and yet such initiatives require the support of prominent athletes. They bring explosive topics to the stadiums and living rooms of the television viewers. In soccer arenas in particular, there is still an irritating conservatism. “Gay” is a swear word here, a gay is considered a sissy, as someone who is of no use in battle on the field of play.
When Manuel Neuer, world champion and multiple world goalkeeper, truly not a weakling, shows solidarity with the rainbow movement, that is a strong signal. One that every fan understands, no matter how much they maintain a Stone Age gender image.
Generation of players who don’t just stand up for themselves
A PR agency advised the national team not to have a rainbow band or to kneel; the initiative comes from the team itself. Captain Manuel Neuer had announced the kneeling on the evening before the England game, in a few simple, unpathetic sentences. No trace of cheap talk.
A generation of players is currently growing up at the DFB who not only stand up for themselves, but for great, universal values. A generation that has understood that the world is looking at them – and that they have to take responsibility outside of the grass pitches.
No matter how the last 16 game of the Germans will end tonight against England: The team is already a winner of this European Championship.
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
