“85.6 per cent of the population in Germany agree with the statement that German athletes play an exemplary role in terms of performance.”

This is the result of a study by Deutsche Sporthilfe and the Deutsche Sporthochschule in Cologne on the acceptance of top sport in Germany – published by the German NOC website.

Deutsche Sporthilfe currently supports some 3,800 successful and hopeful up-and-coming and top athletes from over 50 different disciplines; the Deutsche Sporthochschule is the largest sport university in Europe.

In addition, German athletes still play an exemplary role in communicating a common feeling (82.9 per cent), in terms of efficiency (80.7) and fairness (79.1).

The survey value has risen over the past five years, from 57.1 to 60.1 percent. Thus, the majority of the population is interested in top sport and is also emotionally moved by the medal series of German athletes. At the same time, the value of German athletes is still very high: “81.3 per cent of Germans have confidence in the fact that German athletes act morally, respect the rules, fair play and incorruptibility,” the study says. For international athletes this figure is only 39.3 percent.

However, negative themes of top sport such as doping, corruption and match fixing have an impact on the social acceptance and relevance of top sport.

Compared to a study conducted in 2011, athletes’ role as an example has declined slightly (85.6 instead of 90.9 per cent, sharing a common sense: 82.9 instead of 85.0 per cent, and 80.7 instead of 84.0. And fairness: 79.1 instead of 87.2 percent).

Only 60.9 per cent of Germans, according to the study, combine top-sport with individual or national benefits for Germany, while in 2011 this was still 78.2 per cent.

At the same time, the German population’s low confidence in the integrity of international athletes, international sports associations and international sports officials is particularly evident.

 Professor Christoph Breuer, head of the Institute for Sports Economics and Sports Management at the German Sporthochschule said: “We were able to prove for the first time a causal chain that the acceptance of top sport in the German population depended on trust in the integrity of the athletes, the associations and in particular the officials.”

“Ensuring the integrity and values ​​of sport is fundamental to the development of promising sport,” Michael Ilgner, Chairman of the Executive Board of Deutsche Sporthilfe said, explaining  that he therefore sees the need for action: “Performance, fair play and co-operation are the key values ​​in our work: on the one hand, the oath of athleticism which every sponsored athlete has to sign and whose penalties are followed by sanctions up to the exclusion; on the other hand through a long-term oriented promotion concept, which incentivizes performance and daring, but is also increasingly oriented towards personal development and life perspective of the athletes. ”

(More at http://www.dosb.de)