German coach blasts ‘racist’ state broadcaster for survey asking if team should have more white players

German men's footballteam head coach Julian Nagelsmann has slammed a public broadcaster for conducting a survey where participants were quizzed if they preferred more white players in the squad.

German state broadcaster ARD conducted the contentious survey of 1,304 randomly selected participants and found that 21 per cent would prefer itif more players in the national team were white-skinned.

“I thought about it briefly and I have the feeling that we need to wake up a bit," said Nagelsmann ahead of the start of the Euro 2024.

“There are people in Europe who’ve had to flee because of war, economic factors, environmental disasters, people who simply want to be taken in. We have to ask what are we doing at the moment? We in Germany are doing very, very well, and when we say something like that, I think it’s crazy how we turn a blind eye and simply block out such things.”

Nagelsmann's statement comes after midfielder Joshua Kimmich called the surveyas "absolutely racist" and said it was "madness for a public broadcaster" to ask such a daft question.

“Anyone who’s grown up with soccer knows this is absolute nonsense. Soccer in particular is a good example of how you can unite different nations, different skin colours and different religions,” Kimmich said.

“That’s what our team is all about. I would miss a lot of players if they weren’t here. This is absolutely racist and has no place in our changing room.”

Expression of situation in Germany

After the furore, sports director of ARD said the company was dismayed at the results "but they are also an expression of the social situation Germany today".

The German side has several players with mixed heritage, including the likes of captain Ilkay Gundogan, defender Antonio Rudiger and winger Leroy Sane who remain key to the team's fortunes in the upcoming tournament.

Germany is the host nation for this year's European Championship and will play the opener against Scotland in Munich on June 14.

Earlier this year, Adidas said it was redesigning thenational team's kit containing the number ‘4’ to avoid Nazi symbolism. In a statement released by the DFB (German Football Association), it confirmed the slight change as the No. '44' resembled the symbol used by Nazi 'SS' units.

(With inputs from agencies)