“A game against Israel will always be something extraordinary for a German national team,” writes Bernd Neuendorf, the new president of the German Football Association (DFB) in the foreword of the programme. “It is our responsibility to remember the past and learn from it. So that the Holocaust, that unimaginable horror that emanated from Germany, never happens again.”
Political dimension omnipresent
In the words of the late Honorary President Egidius Braun, Neuendorf recalls that football is “much more than a 1-0” and of the political and social dimensions of sport. She is omnipresent. The stadium in Sinsheim, where the game against Israel will kick off on Saturday (March 26th, 2022), is at Dietmar-Hopp-Straße 1. The father of TSG Hoffenheim’s longstanding patron was a squad leader of the SA and was involved, among other things, in the expulsion of a Jewish brothers involved. In the meantime, that’s how it can be read in the news magazine “Spiegel”.the Hopp family is friends with the victims of the Nazi dictatorship.
Munas Dabbur, a TSG professional and Israeli international, once missed a training camp with his former club RB Salzburg in the United Arab Emirates – precisely because he is Israeli.
However, Israel now has an embassy in Dubai, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. In Doha, the capital of the Emirate of Qatar, there is only one commercial agency. But relations between the two countries have also improved. Israeli athletes regularly take part in events in Qatar, and if they win, the national anthem is played.
Every word can lead to entanglements
The fact that such things are taken for granted in the literature shows how political sport is. Every gesture, every symbol, every word can lead to entanglements. This applies in particular to a football World Cup.
This was also evident on Friday (03/25/2022). Hassan al-Thawadi, head of the Qatari organizing committee, reacted sharply on “beIN Sports” to Dutch national coach Louis van Gaal, who had criticized the award of the World Cup to the Gulf state. “For someone who has been a coach for so many years and understands the power of football, it’s ridiculous to make such a meaningless statement.”, said al-Thawadi. He is sure van Gaal has himself “not much to do with the importance of football for Qatar and the Arab world” occupied.
Van Gaal had said that giving Qatar a World Cup was “ridiculous”. It was only about money.