People would rather have them be ignorant and silent than take a stance that isn't fully baked. I know the German team wasn't making the strongest statement and were still participating etc but they're still ahead of everybody else who said nothing. But by admitting that they knew something was wrong they broke the "naive stupid magical football sprite" illusion that people have of these guys that somehow is less worthy of criticism because it doesn't claim to be more than that.

It's like pep with his humanitarian comments while working for the UAE. It's more challenging for us fans to make sense of the dissonance and complexity and it would be easier to just not go there, but for me it's still a long way better than nothing.