Sports equipment company Adidas has suspended the sale of personalized German national team jerseys on its website after social media users pointed out that one of the number options bore a resemblance to the symbol of a Nazi organization.

On Monday, the Adidas website was no longer offering the option to personalize the jerseys with a name and number. The controversy erupted at the weekend when images of a personalized jersey with the number 44 began to circulate.

The combination of the number and the type of font that Adidas presented led several users to point out an eerie resemblance to the "doppelte Siegrune", the runic insignia of the Schutzstaffel (SS), a Nazi paramilitary organization that was among the main perpetrators of the Holocaust.

Even the personalization with a solitary number 4 has been pointed out as similar to one of the symbols used by the former Hitler Youth, the Nazi Party's youth organization.

In Germany, the public display and dissemination of the symbol of the SS and other former Nazi organizations is forbidden and can result in criminal charges.

Adidas confirms blockade

Adidas spokesman Oliver Brüggen said that it was not the company's intention for such a similarity to occur. "We will block the personalization of jerseys in our online store," said Brüggen.

The German Football Association (DFB) has also suspended deliveries of jerseys personalized with the number 44 in its online store.

Adidas, for its part, blamed the DFB and its partner company 11Teamsport for the sources of the names and numbers.

Brüggen told DPA that "as a company, we actively oppose xenophobia, anti-Semitism, violence and hatred in any form". "Any attempts to promote divisive or marginalizing views are not part of our values as a brand," he added.

DFB is developing alternative font

Meanwhile, the DFB told German newspaper Bild that it was working with 11Teamsport to develop a new font for the number 4, which should require approval from the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).

DFB spokeswoman Franziska Wülle told the newspaper about the process of developing the controversial design.

Wülle said that the DFB "granted a 'name and number' license to 11Teamsport for six years. Our colleagues at 11Teamsport developed their own typography for the new jersey and coordinated it with the DFB."

Wülle also stated that the parties involved in the design process of the number 4 did not see any Nazi symbolism at the time.

No Germany player wore the number 44 jersey. The team's jerseys for Euro 2024 are numbered from 1 to 23. The players did not wear jerseys numbered 4 and 14.

The controversy over the "SS jersey" comes just under two weeks after the German national soccer team announced that it will no longer be sponsored by the German company Adidas, ending a partnership of more than seven decades, and will instead use uniforms, boots and other sports items supplied by the American company Nike.

O acordo de patrocínio com a Nike terá início em 2027 e estender-se-á até pelo menos 2034, disse a DFB num comunicado. Na ocasião, o anúncio da troca de patrocinador da seleção nacional e a escolha de uma empresa americana gerou críticas de membros do governo da Alemanha.

// Deutsche Welle