Hans-Joachim Watzke had stimulated the debate and also clearly positioned himself. If it were up to the head of the DFL supervisory board, who also sits on the DFB executive committee, the term “the team” should be abolished. A decision should be made at the end of July. This was announced by Bernd Neuendorf, President of the DFB, on Monday in a virtual media round at the request of WELT.
A “representative survey” will be carried out on the name, said the association boss. “We have agreed that we will start this survey promptly, and then there will be meetings at the end of July in which we will come to a decision. There is an end point,” said Neuendorf: “Then we have a decision and can concentrate on the sport.”
According to Neuendorf, it is still unclear who will carry out the representative survey – and it will not only be asked whether the term is good or bad. “We are concerned with additional messages so that the picture is consolidated and rounded off,” added the DFB boss, who was elected on March 1st. According to Neuendorf, the term “the team” has become a symbolic theme in relation to the closeness of the team to the fans and to society. “When we have the result, we will include it in the discussion,” said Neuendorf.
In the debate, DFB director Oliver Bierhoff also called for a timely decision in WELT AM SONNTAG, “which will then no longer be discussed internally”. He also said that “The Team” – the national team has been officially called that since 2015 – is not a term he coined, it’s called that all over the world. Bierhoff promoted a factual debate: “Are there good arguments against this designation. Or just the famous gut feeling?”
