Former U21 coach
Kuntz: Political debates “are not good for football”
Stefan Kuntz, currently national coach of Turkey. photo
© Uncredited/AP/dpa
“One Love” armband, human rights and a rainbow runabout: The World Cup in Qatar is also political. The long-time German U21 coach Stefan Kuntz considers this to be problematic.
After the many political debates surrounding the World Cup in Qatar, the Turkish national coach Stefan Kuntz would like to see a stronger focus on football.
“There was pressure that footballers now have to make statements that have nothing to do with football. Whether right or wrong, but football itself is not good,” said the 60-year-old of the German Press Agency. The tournament in Qatar will be accompanied by political debates. European teams originally wanted to wear the “One Love” tolerance and diversity armband, but decided not to do so under pressure from FIFA.
Kuntz said there had recently been “many other topics” at major events in addition to sport. “Politicians use it as a stage for their performances, and football suffers as a result.” The long-time German U21 national coach warned against too high expectations of the athletes. “The real uproar should have happened when the World Cup was awarded to Qatar. That didn’t happen,” he said. “At the very end, the footballers were expected to do something that belongs in sports policy and not on the football pitch.” But it is right if footballers have an opinion and express themselves.
Kuntz accuses the German Football Association of making mistakes in the debate about the “One Love” armband. As a coach, it is important to ensure that there are no issues outside of football in the team, “because it’s always distracting and affects performance.” It is not easy to find the right solutions in this area of tension, but the focus must be on sport. “At this level you have to focus 100 percent on football to get into the top eight,” said Kuntz.