The president of Germany’s football federation (DFB) Reinhard Grindel says he made mistakes in handling the controversy over Mesut Ozil’s photo with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The midfielder called time on his nine-year career with Germany last week, accusing the DFB of treating him with “racism and disrespect” over the issue of a photograph featuring the player alongside Erdogan which was taken before the World Cup.Ozil was critical of the federation, Grindel, fans and media for what he regarded as racism in treating people with Turkish roots. The 29-year-old defended the meeting with Erdogan, who draws widespread criticism in Germany for being increasingly authoritarian.
Grindel said on Thursday he regretted that the federation’s criticism of the photo “was abused for racist slogans” He added: “The resignation statement by Mesut Ozil has triggered a debate on racism in general and the ability of football to integrate in particular. As DFB President, I do not want to escape this debate.In hindsight, I, as president, should have unequivocally said what for me and the association is obvious: any form of racial hostility is intolerable.”
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan previously branded the alleged racism which caused Mesut Ozil to retire from international duty with Germany as “completely unacceptable”. Ozil announced his retirement from international football on Sunday – accusing some German FA officials of racism – following a storm of abuse after he was pictured with Erdogan ahead of the World Cup. The Arsenal midfielder, who is a Muslim and has Turkish heritage, also revealed he and his family had received hate mail, threatening phone calls and social media abuse following Germany’s poor World Cup campaign.
The German FA (DFB) rejected Ozil’s accusations and called out the 2014 World Cup winner for his failure to provide answers regarding the controversial photograph of himself and Germany team-mate Ilkay Gundogan with Erdogan – who has been accused of abusing human rights laws and restricting the freedom of the press.Now Erdogan has come to Ozil’s defence.
Quoted in Erdogan said: “Such a racist approach, due to his religion, towards a young person who gave everything for the German national team, contributing to its successes, was completely unacceptable.” The president of the Turkish Football Federation, Yildirim Demiroren, has also spoken out in support of Ozil. Demiroren told the federation’s website, tff.org: “I condemn the treatment, the threats and the humiliating messages that have been sent to him because of his origins.
“Every player should be protected against messages of humiliation, discrimination and hate.All members of the international football community should unite in destroying racism and intolerance – it must continue to fight tirelessly.” Ozil’s treatment and subsequent decision to retire has divided opinion in Germany.
Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness slammed the decision, describing Ozil as “weak”, adding the 29-year-old has “been playing dirt for years”.
Dr Erkut Sogut, Ozil’s agent, deemed Hoeness’ assessment of his player as unfair – pointing him in the direction of the Arsenal midfielder’s stats and achievements.
In a statement to Goal, he said: “The comments of Mr Hoeness miss the point completely, as they have absolutely nothing to do with football. He is trying to divert attention away from the real issue, the issue of racism and discrimination in Germany, which is resurging once again within everyday German society.
“As Mesut said in his statement, he accepts reasonable and fair criticism of his football, and deals with that as part of the job. However, Mr Hoeness cannot even provide any actual evidence to back up his foolish statements that are clearly exaggerated. In this case, the stats are clear. Twenty-three goals, 40 assists – which is a German record – and five-time German player of the year – three of which come after 2014.
“He claims that Mesut has been a ‘ghost’ for years, but what ‘ghost’ wins all these awards and has this much success? Mesut created more chances in the 2018 World Cup per 90 minutes than any other player, but, of course, he singles him out for criticism. As the president of Bayern Munich is it not best to focus on the performance of his own players seeing as eight of the Germany team play for the club.
“If Mesut is such a bad player, what does this say about his opinion on Joachim Low, Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho? These are three elite managers who praise Mesut as one of the best in his position. It is laughable that he thinks he is more qualified to judge footballing abilities than these people, with fabricated statistics.
“The facts speak for themselves and anyway who is he to speak about Mesut in this way? These lies are cheap, stereotypical and baseless comments – made without any foundations – that allow hurtful news to spread.”