In the game against Paris St. Germain, FC Bayern manifested a low point for German women’s football.
Source: dpa
The disillusionment on the Bayern campus was palpable. And the disappointment is omnipresent. Giulia Gwinn, Sydney Lohmann and Georgia Stanway could hardly believe it: Despite a courageous performance, FC Bayern only played 2-2 against Paris St. Germain on Tuesday evening in a final group game of the Women’s Champions League that was hard to beat in terms of drama – and remains so already stuck in the group phase.
Sports director Bianca Rech had fantasized about winning the female premier class – now the champions from Munich have manifested a low point for German women’s football.
Similar to the women’s national team with their disastrous World Cup preliminary round exit in Australia, the German club teams are also historically bad because no one makes it to the knockout rounds.
Axel Hellmann criticizes the self-congratulation
The runner-up and cup winner VfL Wolfsburg already stumbled in the playoffs against Paris FC. Eintracht Frankfurt, the third team from the Bundesliga, has no chance of progressing before the last group game against FC Rosengard (Wednesday 9 p.m.).
The direct duel against Benfica Lisbon was lost shortly before Christmas because of a missed penalty by national player Laura Freigang.
Since UEFA first created the Women’s Cup in 2001, at least one Bundesliga team has always reached the quarter-finals. German teams are on the winners list nine times. By the way, the last one was 1. FFC Frankfurt in 2015, before the all-women’s football club merged with Eintracht in 2020.
The Eintracht Frankfurt footballers lost last Thursday against top favorites FC Barcelona and thus missed the chance of reaching the quarter-finals.
What: Reuters
Frankfurt’s board spokesman Axel Hellmann speaks plainly:
From a club perspective, I am not satisfied with the state of development of women’s football. We have to be careful that we don’t always pull the wool over our eyes and praise ourselves even though we’re not really good.
Axel Hellmann, board spokesman for Eintracht Frankfurt
Katja Kraus criticizes the lack of independence
The German Football Association (DFB) has somehow ignored the downward trend in sport despite all the cheering reports about attractive spectator numbers – almost 3,000 visitors came to the Schmitt in the first half of the season.
That’s why the “Football Can Do More” initiative is now sounding the alarm and drawing attention to a theses paper. Initiator Katja Kraus essentially demands: “Professional women’s football must function as a business model.”
As a former board member at Hamburger SV, the 53-year-old is suggesting a complete realignment. With your own, credible identity and more independence because:
The women’s Bundesliga cannot be the smaller version of the men’s Bundesliga.
Katja Kraus, initiator of “Football can do more”
A new vision is needed to leverage existing potential in this country.
Can a strategic partner really do better than the association?
Hellmann, who sits on the initiative’s advisory board, spoke about the concept with DFB President Bernd Neuendorf and managing director Holger Blask. The first reactions were cautious. The will to reform? Not overly pronounced.
The sports marketing manager and the club official are publicly debating whether the DFB is really the right sponsor for the league.
Kraus: “The question is, where are the best possible conditions to make the sport successful in the long term. Can the DFB do that or not?” From their point of view, strategic partners are needed who can advance the topic with “competence and desire”.
The “Football can do more” initiative
“Football can do more” was created in 2021 and confronted German football with eight core demands. Today the initiative is a non-profit network organization that, among other things, advocates for gender equality and diversity in football. Personalities such as Almuth Schult (former national goalkeeper), Bibiana Steinhaus (former Bundesliga referee), Verena Pausder and Katharina Kurz (founders of FC Viktoria Berlin) bring different perspectives and a lot of experience to continually provide food for thought. This diversity has resulted in a concept paper for the future viability of women’s professional football, which sees the initiative as the starting point for a debate.
Hellmann goes one step further because: “There is dissatisfaction among some clubs, also about how the clubs are integrated. If the necessary adjustments to the structure can be achieved, I have no problem with that at all. But if that’s not the case If this is the case, we have to think about organizing women’s football independently.” The lawyer strongly dislikes the fact that the men’s license clubs still have to subsidize the business.
The 52-year-old adds unequivocally: “A time horizon of eight to ten years for an increase in the Bundesliga is far too long for the international dynamics in the market. The English are outsourcing the women from the association, the Americans have already done that .” And Germany is losing touch.