It’s halftime in the Qatar tournament. Well, for some participants the final was already there, now it’s more of an apocalyptic mood. Like four years before in Russia, the German team sailed out in the preliminary round and now has to endure the ridicule of those who host this unspeakable event. To put it bluntly: Those who want a World Cup in Qatar are still playing. Those who didn’t want to play don’t play anymore. And that’s mostly the Germans.
It doesn’t take clairvoyant abilities to predict that the World Cup will mutate into a major side event in Germany in the next two weeks. A lot of people who have been watching so far will switch off because the German team was still good for a little drama.
Even if it was emotionally farther away from many people at home than it had been for decades. The players didn’t get carried away with their performances. With their appearance, their hand over their mouth before the first game, they illustrated that they are – quite rightly – not happy with the tournament.
With 17.43 million viewers when the Germans last played against Costa Rica, the viewing quota was a World Cup quota record, but it was by no means the record for a football game in this year and country. 17.897 million viewers tuned in when Germany’s kickers lost 2-1 to England in the European Championship final at Wembley in July.
The fact that the women are ahead of the men in the final calculation for the first time – actually unthinkable just a few months ago – also shows that a German team was there in the summer that took the people back home with them.
So let’s look forward to the next highlight on the international football calendar, namely the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand (women) in 2023. And let’s hope that the men’s team will be able to get us more emotionally involved at the European Championships at home next year.
Maybe it was even a good thing that the German team was eliminated this time, because what would have happened if they had become world champions? It would have been a title with an asterisk if others were to have it.
Claus cousin draws a slightly different half-time balance of the World Cup in Qatar.
Brayden White, a veteran sports writer at Global Happening, brings his wealth of knowledge and expertise to the sports section. With over a decade of experience, he is committed to delivering high-quality coverage of the latest games and events.
