EC Football
Adidas and the German Football Association have temporarily stopped sales of the new national team shirt with jersey number 44. The design of the numbers is too reminiscent of the SS runes, the symbol of the German SS elite troops.
It is no longer possible to buy jerseys with shirt number 44 from the German football team. The German Football Association (DFB) and manufacturer Adidas have announced that the number must first be redesigned before sales can be restarted. Last weekend there was a commotion on social media because the shirt number 44 strongly resembles the SS runes, the symbol of the German SS elite troops.
No one in the German national team plays with the number 44, but it could be chosen when personalizing the shirt. Although certain names with a connection to National Socialism are filtered as a precaution, freelance journalist Tobias Huch still managed to design a jersey with the name “Führer” and the number 44/SS underneath.
Manufacturer Adidas denies that any similarity was intentional. “Adidas employs people from around a hundred countries, our company stands for the promotion of diversity and inclusivity, and as a company we actively oppose xenophobia, anti-Semitism, violence and hatred in all forms,” said spokesperson Oliver Brüggen when asked by the dpa news agency .
He points out that the DFB football association and its partner 11teamsports are responsible for the design of the names and numbers. According to the DFB, an alternative design for the number 4 is now being developed. The German Football Association emphasizes that it checks numbers 0 to 9 and then submits numbers 1 to 26 to Uefa for assessment, so no alarm bells have gone off.
