Flick claims loss to Japan had nothing to do with OneLove controversy

Hansi Flick has called the rumors about Germany’s loss being related to them focusing on the OneLove campaign nonsense.

, along with 9 other European nations wanted their captains to wear the OneLove armband in support of the LGBTQ+ rights but FIFA denied any team to wear an alternative armband in the World Cup, threatening “sporting sanctions” to any who would have worn it.

As such, German players posed for their pre-match picture with their hands covering their mouths in protest to FIFA as Die Mannschaft felt that FIFA was trying to “silence” them.

Germany lost their opening match against Japan and subsequently many critics tried to link the loss with the controversy that happened before the match. But Flick has dismissed these out of hand by saying a simple “

no. not at all”.

Flick was alone in his pre-match press conference which was unusual since it is custom for a player to be with the manager also. But former Bayern Munich manager felt that a 3-hour drive to a media center is unnecessary for any player.

"I came by myself to the press conference because we didn't want any player to spend almost three hours driving. We don't expect any player to drive for so long. It's a long drive,"

he said.

"It's a very important match, so everyone, all 26 players are important [for training], that's why we didn't want to take a player with us. They should now prepare for the training.

"I think we could have done [the press conference] in our media centre as well, that is really good, it would have been better. But we have to accept this."

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