The World Cup in Qatar is highly controversial internationally. For politicians, a trip to the emirate is quite explosive. Apparently, the Chancellor has not yet decided how he would proceed if the DFB team took part in the final.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has not yet decided whether he will travel to Qatar if the German national soccer team makes it to the World Cup final. That cannot be ruled out, but it is not yet clear either, said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit. “Then we will take a close look at that.” The World Cup, which is controversial because of the human rights situation in Qatar, begins on Sunday and the final will take place on December 18th. Hebestreit said the chancellor would initially follow the German team’s games on television “if his schedule allows it”.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, on the other hand, announced that she wanted to support the team on site. However, the plans are not yet complete. At the same time, the SPD politician wants to continue the dialogue with the Qatari government on reforms there, in particular to improve the human rights situation and the situation of migrant workers.
On Friday, the World Cup hosts enforced a ban on alcoholic beer around all stadiums. Two days before the opening game, the softening of the alcohol ban that had actually been agreed with the world football association was overturned again. This caused a lot of international outrage and astonishment. “I would like to look at the process and see what the Qataris’ reasoning is. I don’t want to shoot from the hip,” said DFB President Bernd Neuendorf.
Since the German team won the World Cup at home in 1974, the Chancellors have always been there live when Germany was in the final. In 1974 in Munich in the victory against the Netherlands and in 1982 in Madrid Helmut Schmidt kept his fingers crossed for the German team in the stands. Helmut Kohl was in Mexico City in 1986 and in 1990 when he won the title at the Olympic Stadium in Rome. In 2002 Gerhard Schröder traveled to Japan to support the German team in Yokohama against Brazil. And in 2014, Angela Merkel celebrated the World Cup title with the DFB selection in the dressing room at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
The German team only had to do without the chancellor’s support from the stands twice in World Cup finals: in 1954 Konrad Adenauer missed out on the miracle of Bern, the surprising triumph against Hungary. And Ludwig Erhard wasn’t there when Germany lost to England at London’s Wembley Stadium in 1966.