Politics & Power Quote by Oliver Kahn

Kahn’s line is less a neutral principle than a defensive maneuver: the classic athlete’s firewall, deployed when the world insists the stadium is also a stage. “This match is about sport” sounds clean and disciplined, like a keeper organizing his box. The second clause does the real work. “I separate that completely from politics” isn’t just personal preference; it’s an attempt to set the rules of engagement for everyone listening: journalists, fans, federations, sponsors. Don’t ask me to adjudicate the mess outside the touchline. Let me be competent inside it.

The subtext is anxiety about contamination. Politics threatens to turn performance into statement, to make any gesture - a handshake, an anthem, a banner - readable as allegiance. By insisting on “completely,” Kahn reaches for an impossible purity, a fantasy that sport can be hermetically sealed from the conditions that fund it, broadcast it, police it, and exploit it. That absolutism is the tell: he’s not describing reality, he’s trying to preserve a workable bubble.

Context matters because Kahn comes from an era when German football was increasingly global, commercial, and politically scrutinized: international tournaments, national symbolism, debates over hosting rights, boycotts, war, racism in the stands. In that environment, “no politics” functions as conflict avoidance and brand protection. It signals professionalism, but it also quietly shifts responsibility away from institutions that actually wield power. Kahn’s intent is understandable - athletes get punished for speaking and punished for staying silent. The irony is that declaring neutrality is itself a political act: it sides with the status quo, just in a calmer voice.