The German national team’s sporting director, Rudi Völler, stressed in a  weekly sports talk show recently, that while no gag order would be imposed on anyone, “it cannot be that it’s being talked about, practically on a matchday like with this disaster in Qatar.”

Völler was referring to the One Love armband debate in Qatar, which Germany – and several other nations – dropped at the last minute after FIFA threatened sanctions. Germany then protested ahead of the Japan game by posing for the team photo with their mouths covered.

Germany were met with a lot of criticism for their gesture in Qatar, but Jürgen Mittag, a professor of sports politics at the German Sport University Cologne, believes had they made the quarterfinals things might have been different.

“But as it was, they were met with a great deal of ridicule because they were symbolically strong but sportingly weak,” Mittag told DW.

EU weakens Germany’s stance

The hope is that in the United States of America, Canada and Mexico Germany will perform better on the field, but what does that mean for their stance off it?

Michael Mutz, a professor of social sciences in sports at the Justus-Liebig University Giessen, doubts that any political statement will be made.

“I can’t imagine that the DFB (German Football Association) will actively pursue a political agenda against the host country again after the negative experiences in Qatar,” Mutz told DW. 

“The DFB is exposing itself to accusations of double standards because it criticized the situation in Qatar so harshly and will now presumably remain silent about the US, but the association will have to accept that.”

Mittag believes Germany’s postion is weakened by the current state of the European Union. The bloc is now further challenged by Donald Trump’s new round of tariffs on six member states as well as the UK and Norway who sent troops or officials to Greenland — which Trump is intent on acquiring — for security purposes.

“European democracy is also suffering a little… it is becoming increasingly fragmented and is therefore somewhat less capable of acting in foreign policy. This applies to the big picture as a whole, as well as to the internal sphere of football and other sports-related matters,” Mittag explained before the tariffs, set to start on February 1, were announced.

“Germany has been very proactive in sports diplomacy in recent years, but has also found that although it plays a prominent role, it doesn’t receive much support,” Mittag added.

Mittag cites the example of Germany’s stance on Russia and Belarus’s return to the Olympics. Germany petitioned hard against this and tried to forge a strong alliance, but only received minimal support. Mittag believes this defeat has hurt them, and forced them to reconsider their approach.

“That’s when Germany realized that it needs to pursue a different strategy. It doesn’t want to give up its position, but placing too much emphasis on moral, value-based issue is strategically clumsy. So, in the end, it does not lead to success and then you even have to put up with scorn or schadenfreude when you perform poorly in sporting terms,” Mittag explained.

Political shift in sports diplomacy

Andreas Rettig, an outspoken sports executive who used to work at St. Pauli, was appointed as the new DFB’s CEO in 2023 and may be the perfect person to forge new alliances and better position Germany in committees. Even he has come up against challenges though. Rettig’s attempt to initiate a dialogue on critical issues ahead of the 2024 Euros was not met with much enthusiasm by regional associations.

Others in Germany have been loud, though. St. Pauli President and DFB Vice President Oke Göttlich recently told Sportschau: “Personally, I would advise against traveling given the current situation in the country.”

After Bayern Munich’s Champions League win over Union Saint-Gilloise, Bayern and Germany captain Joshua Kimmich said he would “no longer be taking part in the political discussion.”

The DFB have yet to comment.

“There has been a realpolitik shift in sports diplomacy, it’s somewhat less value-based, somewhat more realistic and acting pragmatically in order to perhaps achieve more success than in the past,” Mittag added.

Viewership might drop

The January protests against the Trump administration’s clampdown on illegal immigration – including a decision by the US justice department not to launch a criminal civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis on January 7 – have increased tensions in many places.

Given that Germany’s viewership dipped for the World Cup in Qatar, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see another drop this summer, particularly given the difficult kickoff times for European viewers.

“I believe that we will not see the same viewing figures as in previous World Cups,” Mittag said.

“I would actually assume that broadcasting and media behavior will also reflect the fact that a lot of people in the summer of 2026 will say, ‘I’m aware of this World Cup, but I’m not going to watch it all. I’m not as enthusiastic as in previous years, and in a small way, I’m expressing my criticism.’”

 What is clear is that the moment Germany touch down in the United States, players and staff will have to answer questions about playing a tournament in the current political and social climate. The strength of their answers will depend on many factors, but perhaps most of all on how well they play on the field.

“The decisive factor for identification with the national team is not so much the political situation as the fact that the DFB team is perceived as a likeable, approachable, and successful team,” Mutz explained.

“Certainly, there is also a growing awareness in society that we are living in times of crisis and that political opinions are highly polarized. Especially in these times, the national football team could be an important anchor point for identification and the experience of belonging and community—across all social groups and political camps. However, football’s ability to bring different people together is weakened when the national team is perceived as too political.”

Edited by: Chuck Penfold

This article was updated on January 26, 2026 to include the statement from the St. Pauli President.