The German company Adidas has banned football fans from buying t-shirts of the German national team with the number 44. Earlier, several media outlets drew attention to the fact that the combination of these two numbers and the font used on the t-shirt is very similar to the emblem of the Nazi SS units.
Adidas spokesman Oliver Bruggen said the company would no longer sell shirts with the number, but said any overlap with Germany's Nazi past was unintended.
"As a company, we adhere to a policy of combating xenophobia, anti-Semitism, violence and hatred in any form," he said.
Adidas also told the BBC that the design of the shirt, including the font for the numbers, was developed by the German Football Association (DFB) and its partners.
The DFB explained on social network X (formerly Twitter) that the design of the German national football team's uniform was initially sent to UEFA for approval and "no one involved in the process saw any overlap with Nazi symbols".
The Football Association added that a new font will now be developed for number 4.
Historian Michael Koenig was the first to write about the similarity of the number 44 on the uniform of the German national team with the symbol of the SS. In his post in X, he said that such a design "raises big questions from a historical point of view" especially in a year when Germany will participate in the European football championship.
The SS rune was developed in 1929 and was used by Nazi paramilitary formations. Later, during the Second World War, SS units took an active part in many crimes of the Nazi regime, including the mass murder of Jews in death camps.
Germany's new national soccer kit has also been criticized for its bright pink away kit. The proponents of the idea say they wanted to highlight Germany's cultural diversity, but critics say it goes against tradition and is a bid to attract funding for the DFB.
Adidas has produced uniforms for the German national football team since the 1950s.
But recently, the German Football Association decided to abandon the services of Adidas from 2027 and switch to the uniform of the American company Nike. German Economy Minister Robert Habeck called this step "unpatriotic".
This summer, the European Football Championship will be held in Germany, the matches will be held in ten different cities of the country.
