In 2018, the newly formed federal government caused unexpected euphoria in the German gaming scene.
In its coalition agreement, the grand coalition promised esports full recognition as a sport with club and association rights.
This autumn, however, the next general election is due and it is now clear: the government will not keep its promise.
For three years, experts had discussed in working groups, there were Bundestag hearings with the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) and the Esport-Bund Deutschland (ESBD), and the topic was repeatedly discussed in the Bundestag on the initiative of various political groups from the opposition .
While the DOSB underpinned its defensive stance with an expert opinion, during the Bundestag debates a lot had indicated that the funding would meet with broad approval from all parties.
In response to a new request from the Green Group, the Federal Ministry of the Interior recently announced that no further measures to promote esports in Germany were planned during this legislative period.
It could also have said: The content of the coalition agreement will not be implemented.
Insufficient funding opportunities
Recognition as a sport would mean that existing and planned esports initiatives could be financially supported just like traditional sport.
Support with the financing of sports equipment, premises and professional support could easily be applied for.
Classic sports clubs could also expand their existing range of sports to include an esports division without running the risk of risking the non-profit status of the entire club.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior says that esports projects could also be financially supported under the existing framework conditions.
About statutory purposes such as youth work or education.
Esports experts, on the other hand, argue that this is not a practical basis on which to build esports offers.
Esports, so the argument from the popular sports movement of digital sports, has long ceased to be a pure youth phenomenon.
For this reason, offers that are aimed at people over the age of 27 should be classified as worthy of funding.
Who is wasting a chance here?
In the podcast we talk to Dorothee Bär, Minister of State for Digitization.
On her initiative, the topic of esports, combined with the demand for full recognition as a sport, was included in the coalition agreement.
Bär reports on her fights with the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) and the esports skeptics in their own ranks.
We talk to Omid Nouripour, Member of the Bundestag for the Greens, about how the opposition assesses the German government's approach to implementing its plan.
Nouripour says most members of the coalition did not understand what they wrote in their program from the start and have subsequently had no interest in actually delivering on the promise.
We asked Michael Schirp from the DOSB how one looks at developments in organized sport and where the concerns of the umbrella organization of German sport are to recognize esports as a sport.
And we talk to Martin Müller, Vice President of the ESBD.
He reports how the political back and forth in the esports scene was received and why he is convinced that traditional sport is missing a great opportunity with its defensive stance.
Icon: The mirror