National coach Hansi Flick probably has other concerns at the moment than dealing with the results of surveys. He wants to play a successful tournament with the German national team in Qatar in the middle of the season. The question of whether anyone at home is interested in this at all should only play a secondary role for him at the moment.
Flick could not draw much motivation for his ambitious project from the latest survey on World Cup mood anyway: A representative survey by infratest dimap showed that a whopping 56 percent of Germans do not want to see a single World Cup game. The rate is higher for women (63 percent) than for men (48 percent).
Only around a third of those surveyed (35 percent) stated that they were following the World Cup in the emirate. This third is made up of 18 percent who want to watch as many games as in other tournaments. Interest has dropped for 15 percent, they want to watch fewer games. Two percent stated that they watched more games than before.
The reasons for the negative attitude are manifold. Of course there are many people who are simply not interested in football. They make up half of those who want to ignore the World Cup.
The other reasons for the weak interest are more interesting: In the group of respondents who want to watch less or nothing at all, 41 percent stated that they were bothered by the human rights situation and the poor conditions of guest workers in Qatar. 30 percent in this group have a problem with the world football association Fifa and the dubious awarding of the World Cup. Only a small minority is bothered by the time in winter (16 percent) and the lack of a football tradition in the Arab country (11 percent). The lack of sustainability of the many newly built stadiums accounts for 20 percent.
One can assume that the enthusiasm increases as soon as the German team starts the tournament. If it is successful, interest will probably increase. Nevertheless, this World Cup will not be like the past tournaments, that much is clear.
For the survey, 1225 German citizens were interviewed on November 8th and 9th.
Sources: "Sportschau", infratest diamap
