Almost half of the people in Germany don’t want to see politics mixed with sports, a survey conducted by YouGov and commissioned by dpa has shown.
Some 46% of the participants believe political topics should not be discussed at major sports events such as the Olympics or football tournaments, while 38% believe politics should be a part of those.
Recently, the debate over human rights in Qatar and the way the country handles the LGBTQ+ community overshadowed the World Cup there.
During the tournament, Germany and other nations had planned to wear a multi-coloured One Love captain’s armband but backed down after football governing body FIFA threatened sanctions.
Germany coach Hansi Flick criticized the strong politicization of the World Cup after his side was eliminated in the group stage and said the national team should be primarily responsible for playing football.
“That is our task – it would be nice if we were allowed to do that. Others are trained for politics,” said Flick.
