‘The Germans’ greatest love’

Germany's national football team is the "country's fourth force," rejoices Die Welt Kompakt, citing the results of a study entitled Wir sind Nationalmanschaft [We are the national team], conducted by the Institute for sport, business and society at the EBS University of Business and Law in Hesse.

"Academic or worker, millionaire or unemployed person, everyone can identify with [the Mannschaft] [the national team] [...], almost the last major force capable of binding Germans together," adds the daily, adding that this is "the first scientific evidence of the importance of the national team." It continues –

94 per cent of respondents who took part in the study reported that the status of the national team was exemplary. While social and political institutions are losing their influence, the national team is proving to be the rock in the storm. [...] Thus the Mannschaft was found to have 1.8 million fans on social networks [...] while the parties represented in the Bundestag, had only 180,000.