The name of the German national team “Die Mannschaft” continues to raise widespread controversy among stars and fans, and a recent poll showed that only 24% of Germans want their team to continue playing under this controversial name.
The results of the poll conducted by the Forsa Institute, commissioned by RTL and NTV, with the participation of 1,001 people, indicated that 19% preferred another name, and 37% did not want any names.
At the same time, 48% of respondents thought the name was “very good” or “good”, but the same percentage disagreed with this.
What does “de Manchaft” mean? Why do they reject it?
It is noteworthy that the German national team was known for a long time under the name “Die Mannschaft” and in German (Die Mannschaft), which means “the team”, but the official name came in 2015, a year following winning the World Cup in Brazil.
The fans reject the name because it means “the team” as if there is no other team, and 80% of the fans prefer the name “Die Deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft”, which means the German football team.
The negative results that the team achieved in the 2018 World Cup in Russia and continued until now led to a process of rethinking the name. The fans rejected the name and described it as exaggerated, as Lothar Matthaus – former Bayern Munich player and Hans Joachim Watzke – President of the German League, called for the name to be cancelled.
And the Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung reported last June that 78.4% of the 5,300 votes of the Bundesliga fans and clients want the name to be cancelled.
The president of the German Football Association, Bernd Neuendorf, said the final decision on the name would be made by the end of July.
