That's what happens when you overload football with politics

They just want to play. What once applied to German football, namely the desire to play with the heart in the hand and the passion in the leg, has finally come to an end with the World Cup in Qatar.

It also has something to do with the mixing of sport and politics, with the expectation that the team not only show on the pitch that they are good players but also good people. The symbolism of the politically correct superimposed, even overburdened, what a football World Cup should actually be about: football, sporting competition, playful performance - and the joy of all of it.

For Germany in particular, football is king, as the national team once sang. There are some who say that the Federal Republic was actually founded in 1954 with the miracle of Bern. And the summer fairy tale of 2006 brought a national consciousness to the reunited Germany that was carried with pride and lightness.

Back then, football had an influence on the mood of society, today the social mood wants to influence football. The team should be as the country would like it to be: competent in integration and migration, resistant to undemocratic systems and, of course, successful.

Football is a place of longing, but it is neither its task nor its function to solve the contradictions of the real political world - for example when it comes to the question of how a value-based foreign policy and gas deals with Qatar go together. But what he can do: give hope for miracles. Even if it didn't work out this time – after the game is before the game.