Jonathan Harding joined Tuesday's Off the Ball to dissect the current scandal engulfing German football and the wider public in the wake of Mesut Ozil's decision to retire from international football.

The Arsenal play-maker quit the international scene following the widespread abuse he received for posing in a photo with controversial Turkish leader Recep Erdogan.

The issue, according to Harding, goes right to the heart of modern German society and speaking to Joe, he said: "We're talking about, and he even mentions it in his statement about the abuse that he has got in stadiums, and there's a couple of examples in the statement where he talks about people referencing his Turkish heritage and shouting abuse at him and telling him to 'piss off'...that's one aspect of it. 

"Absolutely the social media comes into it, you're talking less the media and more the political side of things. Germany's RFD, the right wing parties, well far-right, basically come in after him and say 'This idea of Germany would be better without you and you've obviously done this because you support Erdogan - we need to have a pure Germany team'.

"And this incident - this is such an underlying issue in Germany - this Ozil incident has now thrown up, this is a question now - does Germany have a problem with racism? And I think the way the DFB have handled it and the way that this has continued to be a conversation and how everybody seems to want to get involved without necessarily trying to understand how other people have experienced it suggests that it absolutely does.

"This is a huge issue way beyond football and it comes back to this sentiment of one man in a leading position like he feels he's been on the end of racial abuse from political parties, political figures, from individuals, from people who were so-called fans of his - this is a player who was voted 'German Player of the Year' five times - five times by fans - and how many of thsoe people are now turning around saying 'I'm glad you're not playing for the Germany national team anymore.'"

Listen to the full podcast here: