It is now almost seven years to the day that Oliver Bierhoff presented the new claim of the German national team shortly before the last international matches in that distant season after winning the title at the World Cup in Brazil.

The manager of the German team at the time had a black colossus drive up in Cologne for the media: the huge new team bus, on which was written in bold letters what the national team wanted to be called from now on: "The team".

Michael Horini

Football correspondent Europe in Berlin.

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What the “Selecao” has meant for Brazil, “Les Bleues” for France, the “Furia Roja” for Spain and the “Squadra Azzurra” for Italy for many generations, “The Team” was to become for Germany.

An identification offer with which Bierhoff wanted to bring fresh wind and fresh money to the German Football Association (DFB).

That was the promise.

However, in these arid seven years, “The Team” has mainly caused frustration.

Arguments against "The Team"?

At the latest with the big failure at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the marketing claim is for many supporters as a synonym for the aloofness and alienation of the national team from the football people.

But Bierhoff, who has meanwhile been promoted to DFB director of national teams and academies, defended "The Team" to the end and stuck to the name.

Now, because of the ongoing discussions, he is demanding a decision from the DFB leadership about the claim, "which will then no longer be discussed internally".

According to Bierhoff in an interview with "Welt am Sonntag", the DFB presidium will discuss the term in a timely manner.

"The discussion should not be emotional, but factual," says the DFB director.

“Are there good arguments against this designation.

Or just the famous gut feeling?”

It can be said that there are good arguments.

Since the introduction of the claim in 2015, SLC Management from Nuremberg has been examining its acceptance with representative surveys of around 5,300 supporters and customers of the Bundesliga.

The most recent survey was collected in June 2022.

The results are exclusively available to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Accordingly, 78.4 percent are in favor of abolishing the claim "The team".

The verdict on the claim among the fans is therefore more negative from year to year.

On a scale from one (very good) to five (poor), the claim received a rating of 3.16 in 2015.

The value fell to 3.29 in 2016, to 3.75 in 2018 and has now reached a low of 3.94.

In 2016, 55 percent of those surveyed said yes to the question of whether the claim “The team” fits the national team. In 2018, approval fell to 29.3 percent.

In June 2022 it is therefore at the latest low: 21.1 percent.

For Alfons Madeja, Professor of Business Administration and Sports Management at Heilbronn University, the results are clear in their significance.

“The claim creates no emotions and no identification.

It ignores people's feelings," says the head of the study.

After the representative surveys, Madeja came to the conclusion that "DieTeam" should be regarded as a "failure" according to objective criteria.