Football in German schools and the role of the German FA in the context of a discourse of ‘crisis’ and the World Cup 2006

This article explores the role of football in German schools. Against the backdrop of an historical outline of structural developments, the analytical focus centres on examining the ways in which the German Football Association and the German educational system have cooperated over the last two decades approximately. It will be argued, that in the aftermath of German reunification, a perceived existential crisis in German football, generally dating from the late twentieth century and the World Cup of 2006, reconstruction and professionalization processes increased the importance of football in German schools. This applies to the realm of sports for all, where football is used to implement ideas of qualification, integration and social skills in school settings as well as to talent seeking and tendencies of optimization in academies and so-called Elite Schools of Football.