Column | Prevention through sport

If I don't jump right in with the sports door, please bear with me and you don't have to worry about running out of topics. Before each column day, my brain waves switch into thinking mode extremely early, and of course I'm also gathering material the entire time in between. There's always enough going on. For example, the Club World Cup in football is about to begin in the United States. Inter Milan and Juventus are taking part from Italy, as are RB Salzburg, and Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern from Germany. The revenue is high. There are entry fees of up to 30 million per team and winners' checks that run into the hundreds of millions. The clubs' financial directors are jubilant, the German Players' Union (VDV) is warning and is even taking FIFA to court: "It cannot be that FIFA abuses its dominant market position to the detriment of the players out of its own economic interests," it argues.

I'll point out the conclusion. To the detriment of the players, who have to do what they're paid for: play. Many do this for a not inconsiderable salary. Some players in the Club World Cup aren't doing so badly, with annual salaries of more than 20 million. And those who only get a million for pursuing their dream survive. I like to point to other sports that have reason to complain, but hardly do so. Ice hockey, basketball, handball, for example. And yes, even tennis. A tournament week after week, hardly any breaks. A union that complains for millionaires seems out of place to me. There are plenty of other fields of activity.

The rest are marginal notes For example, former German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach needs a new table tennis table, or rather a place for his old one. He is no longer allowed to play in the basement of his former ministry. His successor, Nina Warken (CDU), has revoked this privilege for the former SPD minister. And yet another one complaining. "I didn't take anyone's space or bother anyone," Lauterbach explained. So, now that Timo Boll, Germany's best table tennis player, has ended his career at the age of 45, will another talented player be leaving the table? But help is at hand. The website "pingpongmaps.net" lists thousands of public table tennis tables, including in Lauterbach's constituency of Leverkusen. But perhaps he'll simply join the senior team at a local club. He's said to have some pretty decent shots in his repertoire. And he has time now, too, since he's no longer responsible for the health of an entire country, but only for his own.

Leroy Sane has signed in Istanbul. © APA/afp / ALEXANDRA BEIER

And once again, very quickly, from the small celluloid ball to the big football. Leroy Sane is not renewing his contract with FC Bayern Munich after all, but is moving to Galatasaray Istanbul. And he gave a reason for this. The experience of away games appealed to him. "It was very loud. The atmosphere was outstanding." But there may have been another reason. The decision was made in favor of the Turks. Sane is reportedly looking at an annual salary of €15 million net. That's more than double what he used to earn in Munich. And since he's joining the current Turkish champions on a free transfer, a generous lump sum should have made the move easier. That's certainly something to get heated about.

But this and all the other reports are really just side notes on this day, when Austria is in national mourning following the shooting at a school in Graz that left at least 10 people dead. It affects us too, because we all went to school. Whenever. Did we always feel comfortable? That question was probably never asked. School was part of life and never up for discussion. I didn't have any physical education until I moved to a higher school. Moreover, in my village, everyone from first to fourth grade was taught together in one room. It would have been difficult with sports. Did the teachers offer any kind of support? Yes, with a willow rod on the palm of the hand for disruption or inappropriate behavior, whatever that may have been. It was only later, during physical education class, that I experienced togetherness, but also for the first time the intense, sometimes palpable aggression among students. Sport reveals character traits. In my short time as a physical education teacher at a private school, I had to break down class hierarchies. Math and German teachers were powerless. In sports, especially in team sports, it is easy to see who ticks how.

Therefore, and on this very day, I appeal to those responsible for education everywhere to promote physical education, also because it may help to integrate students who feel misunderstood, as has often happened in the past with former students causing a bloodbath in their former educational institutions. It is simply my attempt to understand the inexplicable, my attempt to find solutions to prevent future acts of insanity. Perhaps my approach is naive, probably even so. But, I tell myself, it would at least be a reaction, a possibility, because the current rampage in Austria is, like the sad list of the past shows, not an isolated case.

To the author: Sigi Heinrich, the award-winning sports journalist (including the German Television Award, the Bavarian Sports Award, and a nominee for the prestigious Grimme Prize), author, longtime sports editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, a trained sports teacher, and a commentator for Eurosport since 1989, devotes his weekly column to the entire spectrum of sports. Sometimes with a smile, sometimes thoughtfully, or even deliberately provocatively. There should be something for everyone.

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Column | Prevention through sport

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