Majority of Germans for cancellation of sporting events

Berlin – In view of the uncertain times due to the corona pandemic, three-quarters of Germans are in favor of completely canceling or postponing major sporting events. This emerges from a recent survey by the opinion research institute YouGov.

YouGov said that older people aged 55 and over (82 percent) are particularly in favor of this. In contrast, only every second respondent (52 percent) of Generation Z between the ages of 18 and 24 was for these serious measures.

Only seven percent are in favor of the fact that the majority of the sporting events should take place – albeit as “ghost games” without spectators. The youngest people up to the age of 34 (13 and 14 percent) were most often in favor of this option, least often the group of over 55-year-olds – only two percent. A third advocated postponing sports events regardless of the time.

According to YouGov, eight percent said that postponing or canceling a sporting event must be considered individually and decided on a case-by-case basis. About a third (30 percent) were in favor of stopping a competition that was paused for more than a month for this season or this year – even if no champion/winner or relegated / loser could be determined. On the other hand, just under a fifth (18 percent) advocates that if a possible cancellation is found, a fairway should still be found to determine a champion/winner or relegated / loser.