According to information from the sports show, the German national soccer team will play an international match in Bremen in June. The opponent is Ukraine.
The exact date is to be officially announced on Friday after a presidium meeting of the German Football Association (DFB). So far, the speech is from June 12, as the sports show from circles of the DFB and Bremen politics has been confirmed. Accordingly, the Ukraine game would be the first of several duels planned for June – and thus even the 1000th international match in DFB history. The following games in June are scheduled to take place in Poland and Gelsenkirchen (against Uruguay).
At the end of February, the sports show reported that after a long break, a game of the national team was to be played in Bremen again. The DFB-Elf has not played in the Hanseatic city since 2012, mainly because of a dispute over the costs of police operations related to high-risk games in the Bundesliga. In the past, the DFB had shown solidarity with the German Football League (DFL) and emphasized that it would no longer award an international match to Bremen because of the legal dispute. But in the meantime there have been several talks between Bremen’s Senator for the Interior, Ulrich Mäurer, and DFB President Bernd Neuendorf.
Historical duel in the Weser Stadium
Therefore, the game should now be played again in the Weser Stadium – and it should be a historic duel. The only games so far scheduled by the DFB for 2023 with the running numbers 998 and 999 will be played on Saturday (March 25th, 2023) in Mainz against Peru and three days later in Cologne against Belgium.
The game in Bremen gets a political note through the selection of the opponent. Ukraine, as a victim of the Russian war of aggression, will guarantee the anniversary game even greater attention.
According to information from the sports show, the DFB had initially planned to play the 1000th game in Bremen, but not against Ukraine – so as not to overload the game. Why the change of heart came about is unclear. If it stays on June 12 as planned, the national team could even start with the best players. The suspension period of the world governing body FIFA, during which the clubs are obliged to allow their players to join the national teams, begins exactly on June 12 – two days after the final of the Champions League.