Former Germany international Steffen Effenberg believes that Mesut Ozil and Ilkay Gundogan should be thrown out of the team after the incident with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Both played handed him a signed shirt at a recent event hosted by Turkey during the visit to London last month, with the words on Gundogan’s reading: ‘To my president, with my respects.”
Gundogan was booed by the German fans during the recent friendly against Saudi Arabia, Ozil missed the game through injury.
Effenberg said: “If you bet on certain values, as the DFB repeatedly conveys, then the decision can only be made by throwing the two players out.
“Ozil and Gundogan have now been lucky that the DFB acted in this case in an inconsistent way, and not quickly.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, meanwhile, has backed the duo and simply thinks they were naive.
She said: “I believe the two footballers did not consider the impact the photo with Erdogan would have.
“They wanted everything but to disappoint the German fans.”
Interestingly enough Effenberg was himself was sent home from the Germany camp during USA 94 after making an obscene gesture towards fans.
Ozil and Gundogan have both made the 23-man Germany squad despite the controversy.
Both players were born in Germany but are of Turkish origin.
Ozil faces a race against time to recover in time for the opening game of the World Cup against Mexico.
