ntv survey on "The Team": Half of Germans like the DFB slogan

As a result of the 2014 World Cup triumph, the German national soccer team operates under the slogan “The Team”. But he never conquered the hearts of the fans – at least that’s how it seemed. The future of the slogan is open. Now a survey reveals surprising results.

The coup was followed by the marketing idea: After the World Cup in 2014, the German Football Association (DFB) established the slogan “The Team” for the German national football team. Since then, the nickname has been firmly part of the German team in this country. But he never conquered the hearts of the fans – or so it seemed. DFB director Oliver Bierhoff recently even left the future of the term open. The decision should be made at the end of July. A current Forsa survey commissioned by RTL and ntv now shows: Germany is undecided, the slogan is polarizing. Half of the respondents with an interest in football find the controversial claim “very good” or “good”. But: Just as many find “DieTeam” less good as a name for the national soccer team.

It’s such a thing with the nicknames of national soccer teams. “Équipe Tricolore”, “Squadra Azzurra”, “Selecao”, “Danish Dynamite” – sonorous names. The head cinema starts immediately. Zinédine Zidane here, Gianluigi Buffon there, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho anyway – or Denmark’s EM fighter in 1992 or at the EM last year. For a long time, however, there was no official nickname for the DFB team. At least in your own country. That changed after the World Cup bang in 2014. As a result of the legendary Rio night, the national team started under the claim “The team” from then on. That’s what the association called her in a respectful way abroad. The problem: The successes and appealing performances since the World Cup triumph have failed to materialize, but criticism and mockery of the supposed art concept have increased. Tenor: too much hashtag marketing, not enough heart and soul, not authentic enough.

Now, seven years after the birth of “The Team”, is there a rejection of the slogan among the German population? Well, it’s not that easy. A current Forsa survey commissioned by RTL and ntv shows that Germany is one thing above all on this issue: divided. This is reflected in the results: 36 percent of those surveyed like the designation “very good” (7 percent) or “good” (29 percent), 49 percent like it “less well”. But: No one thinks that the name is not at all popular. 15 percent have no opinion. The situation is somewhat different for those “interested in football” who took part in the survey. 48 percent like the term “very good” or “good”, just as many find “the team” as a term for the national soccer team less good. A clear draw.

But does it even need a proper name for the DFB team? “Yes,” say 22 percent of those surveyed (three percent consider it “very important” and 19 percent “important”). However, most find such a slogan “less important” (27 percent) or “unimportant” (45 percent). Even among those interested in football, the opinion that such a proper name or nickname is less important or even unimportant predominates. RTL commentator Marco Hagemann, who has accompanied the national team for years, thinks so too. “For me, it’s first and foremost about the senior national team continuing to play under Hansi Flick the way they have played so far. I don’t really care about the name (…), so that doesn’t mean that it’s such a tight one evokes familiarity in me.”

So how should the naming decision proceed? Here, too, the survey paints a mixed picture. 24 percent are in favor of the Flick team continuing to use the name “The Team”. 19 percent want a different name, 34 percent would find it better if there were no extra name at all. At least 23 percent have no opinion on the question of the future. A third (35 percent) of those interested in football are in favor of the German national football team continuing to bear the name “The Team”. However, more than half would prefer a different name (27 percent) or would prefer it if the national football team had no special name at all (30 percent). 1,001 people took part in the survey, which took place between 13 and 14 July. The error tolerance is three percentage points.

A decision on the possible continuation or even abolition of the DFB slogan should be made at the end of July. DFB President Bernd Neuendorf confirmed this in the summer. In the past few weeks and months, Bierhoff had been open to ending the term. He could “live with it,” it said. Bierhoff had been trying to anchor the slogan for the senior national team since 2014. But Bierhoff denied that it goes back to him. That’s what the German team is called all over the world, the 1996 European champion emphasized.

Shortly before the start of the current international series of the DFB-Elf in the Nations League, the future use of the slogan “The Team” came into public focus again. In the German Football League (DFL), the new supervisory board chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke from Borussia Dortmund and DFB record player Lothar Matthäus had criticized the slogan and campaigned for the abolition of “The Team”. Manager legend Reiner Calmund sees it a little differently: “I’m optimistic that there will be a higher level of identification with the team again. And then it is always very important – not what is the title – but how do the decisive protagonists move? It starts with the coach, the manager and ends with the reserve player of the national team. If they present themselves with team spirit, with cohesion, then it’s a team. Don’t speak, don’t write, do it!’ Do it? The national team will have the next opportunity to do so on September 23 in the Nations League game against Hungary and, above all, at the Winter World Cup in Qatar.