Like a “demonstration of strength”, a “clear threat” and a “low blow” on her part. FIFAdescribed the President of the German Football Association (DFB) Byrd Neuendorf the decision of the International Federation on the imposition of penalty points on players who will wear an armband”One Love(in support of the LGBTQI+ community) at the World Cup matches held in Qatar.

Her national team Germany decided to join the rest of the European teams participating in the tournament, and therefore the captain Manuel Neuer he won’t be wearing an armband on Wednesday.

“We don’t want this dispute to happen on the backs of the players,” Mr. Neuendorf said during an emergency press conference at the German team’s training center in Qatar, noting that the decision was made “in solidarity” with other groups. .

“There is no lonely road here,” he said, calling FIFA’s attitude “disappointing” because, as he noted, the teams informed FIFA back in September, but the International Federation waited hours before today’s match against England. which will be the first group to participate in the One Love initiative.

According to him, it was a very difficult decision for us, which we made under great pressure.

However, Germany will continue the dialogue with FIFA, said the head of the DFB, stressing that “we will be clear in our position and statements.”

team technical director Oliver Birchoff for his part, he expressed the disappointment of the players and especially the team captain, who, as he characteristically said, “went to bed last night thinking he would wear an armband” and was only informed today.

“What happened in this way is really sad and we cannot understand it,” he added.

The development caused a strong reaction in Germany. Member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Johannes Setzl he asked her departure of the german team from the organization “yes today”, and a representative of Human Rights Watch Wanzel Michalskispeaking on the air of the n-tv channel, he spoke about the “unexpected decision” and expressed disappointment with “surrender to those in power in FIFA”.

Newspaper BUILD posts a comment with the title “Shame on you!” and advocates for players to wear armbands despite threats of penalties. “Show Neuer a yellow card! Let’s make it red! Let them deduct the points and send us home from the qualifiers! We are ashamed of the Federation and the national team, although the first match has not yet taken place. They are too cowardly to wear a bracelet that says “One Love”. Unthinkable!” writes the newspaper, which has been running a poll on its website in recent hours asking whether the German national team should challenge FIFA and wear an armband to the captain, whether he should withdraw from the tournament or should compete normally, without an armband. So far, the first two options are far ahead of user preferences.

In the same vein, the second channel of the German public television ZDFwhich broadcasts the World Cup matches, publishes on its website a comment entitled “Long live limitation!‘, referring to “a missed opportunity to confront FIFA’s power apparatus” and indicating that seven European teams may have decided to have all of their players wear armbands.

“Eleven Germans, eleven Dutch, eleven Danes, etc. Then it will have to be banned for everyone, they will no longer be able to play and return home. Protests must hurt someone, otherwise they are not protests,” ZDF notes.