German FA boss Grindel confident Ozil affair doesn't threaten Euro 2024 bid

The under-pressure president of the German Football Association (DFB), Reinhard Grindel, has told AFP he is confident the controversy over Mesut Ozil's international retirement will not have a negative impact on Germany's bid to host Euro 2024.

Ozil, capped 92 times, walked away from the Germany set-up in the wake of their disastrous World Cup campaign, complaining of facing "racism and disrespect" and being made a scapegoat for the team's failure.

That was after Ozil and teammate Ilkay Gundogan, born in Germany but of Turkish origin, sparked a political storm in May by meeting Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and being photographed together.

Arsenal star Ozil took aim at Grindel in a statement announcing his retirement, saying that "in the eyes of Grindel and his supporters, I am German when we win, but I am an immigrant when we lose".

The DFB chief has vehemently rejected accusations against him of racism, and has dismissed calls to resign over the issue.

In July, Germany's biggest selling newspaper, Bild, questioned whether Grindel staying on "represents a threat" to the Euro bid, with Turkey the other contenders.

"Everyone in the DFB and in UEFA knows me very well. I have very deep trust that they can put this into perspective, so I think there will be no influence on the bidding process," Grindel, 56, told AFP in an exclusive interview in Monaco.

Some German politicians have accused Erdogan of using Ozil's retirement to boost Turkey's own bid. Grindel is himself a former politician, serving in the Bundestag in Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party for over a decade before moving to the DFB in 2016.

- Integration debate -
======================
"This picture with Erdogan upset our fans, because their President Erdogan doesn't stand for those values."
- Keeping faith in Loew -
=========================