By Jörg Ratsch, Christian Trost and Marco Hadem, dpa
The German government will not get involved in a debate about a possible boycott of this summer’s football World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada, State Minister for Sport Christiane Schenderlein has said.
“Decisions on participation in or a boycott of major sporting events are the sole responsibility of the relevant sports associations, not politicians,” Schenderlein said in a government statement on Monday.
She said the assessment was up to the respective federations, naming the German Football Federation (DFB) and world governing body FIFA.
“The federal government will accept this assessment,” she said.
A government spokesman said on Monday that if the German national team was involved it was not up to the government to decide on the participation of the team at competitions.
There have been boycott considerations in Germany and some other European countries in connection with the policy of United States President Donald Trump regarding Greenland and on the domestic front, with a second fatal shooting on the weekend by US immigration officers.
Christian Democrats foreign policy expert Jürgen Hardt had recently raised the boycott issue should the US annex Greenland. Trump said last week the US would not use military force.
The shooting in Minneapolis on Saturday prompted Monday’s comments by the spokesman after reporters raised the issue.
DFB vice-president and St Pauli chairman Oke Göttlich called for at least a boycott debate last week, telling the Hamburger Morgenpost paper “that for me the time has definitely come.”
Bavarian Prime Minister and Christian Social Union party chief Markus Söder meanwhile dismissed a possible German team World Cup boycott as “absolute nonsense” from a players’ point of a view and foreign policy considerations.
“What’s that supposed to mean, apart from the fact that the World Cup isn’t just being held in the United States, but also in Canada and Mexico?” Söder said after a party meeting in Munich.
