Wednesday July 14, 2021
Controversial marketing idea
DFB boss wants to get rid of “the team”
After the second messed up tournament in a row, the DFB should make a big restart. Sporty with a new national coach anyway, but you also want to get rid of legacy issues on the marketing side. At least that’s what the interim boss suggests.
Dispose of the unpopular slogan “The team”, increase athletic competence, finally get the crisis-ridden association afloat again after years of decline: of all people, Peter Peters, the not exactly undisputed co-interim president himself, has proclaimed a new beginning at the German Football Association (DFB) . The reforms could begin with a high-profile signal to the fans – the end of the much-criticized marketing of the national team under the motto “The team”.
“I am of the opinion that we have to think about a change of course in this context,” said Peters of the “FAZ”: “The marketing of the national team is already now in the corresponding division of the DFB-GmbH under the leadership of Holger Blask – and I am sure that a lot of considerations will be made there.”
Peters sees the time for a rethink after the disappointing European Championship in the round of 16 against England and the arrival of the new national coach Hansi Flick. The co-boss, who will lead the association together with Rainer Koch until a Bundestag next year, is also indirectly targeting the controversial discussions with Qatar Airways.
Peters thinks about personnel reinforcements
“Regardless of current discussions about possible sponsorship contracts and appearances of the national team, it is certainly not wrong if you take the restart with a new national coach as an opportunity to also think fundamentally about the public positioning,” said Peters.
The slogan “The Team” was created after the 2014 World Cup triumph and has since been used in numerous campaigns by the DFB, but also by major sponsors of the association. The idea of giving the German national soccer team an epithet or rather a brand name such as the English “Three Lions”, the French “Les Bleus” or the Brazilian “Selecao” quickly came under fire. There is already one of the fundamental problems, said Professor Gerd Nufer, director at the German Institute for Sports Marketing, the magazine “Meedia”. “It’s just a copy of other nations. Above all, the name is representative of the over-commercialization of the DFB in recent years – along with excessive ticket prices and the exclusion of fans from training sessions.”
Even after the disaster with the qualifying round at the 2018 World Cup, then DFB President Reinhard Grindel told “Bild am Sonntag” that he “also noticed that the term” the team “was perceived as very artificial at the grassroots level. We should also put that to the test. ” DFB Director Oliver Bierhoff, jointly responsible for the slogan, announced in December 2018: “After the World Cup, we critically questioned a lot, including the brand ‘The Team’. The results of an independent study encourage us to continue to hold on to it.” he said. “Much more important than any designation, however, is that we present ourselves as a real team on and off the pitch and that we stand for our values such as team spirit, joy of playing, fair play and success,” promised Bierhoff. and the players have shown that they put their hearts into practice. We will consistently continue the new path we have chosen. ”
“Stakeholders in the Environment”
But there should have been a change, as the former Secretary General Friedrich Curtius told the “Bild” newspaper: “The name should be placed more discreetly and used more cautiously, for example in the context of international matches.” That never worked. “When Bierhoff gave the national team the marketing slogan” The team “and later spoke of” stakeholders in the environment “and a” product “, the alienation that had already occurred continued,” commented the “Deutsche Welle” at the end of 2020 the 6-0 debacle of the long crumbling “The Team” in Spain. “The DFB-Elf became more and more the vehicle of a seemingly never-ending monetization strategy and in this way lost its authenticity and its closeness to the fans.”
Curtius and Grindel are no longer with the DFB, both had to leave the crisis-ridden association. Bierhoff is still there, in spite of the historical alienation of “The Team” from German football fans and two completely messed up tournaments in a row. And may stay longer than his idea of ”The Team”.
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