Women’s and men’s football: in harmony under one roof

The example of Eintracht Frankfurt shows how it is possible for women’s and men’s football to grow together into (almost) equal units in a licensed club.

In the meantime it has almost become normal when the soccer players from Eintracht Frankfurt train in the shadow of the big arena. People who have just looked around the traditional club’s fan shop or museum only need to walk a few steps to watch a Bundesliga team practicing. While the men almost always disappear behind the square with the opaque tarpaulins, access to the women is usually not blocked.

Some kibitzers like to take the opportunity to watch German internationals like Laura Freigang, Sara Doorsoun or Nicole Anyomi pass, dribble or cross. They play on the same grass pitches as the men at the professional camp. Equal play, i.e. offering women the same conditions, has been a model in Frankfurt since last autumn.

Sports director Markus Krösche is behind it

“By using the shared infrastructure, we have set a milestone,” says sports director Markus Krösche in an interview with the sports show and emphasizes: “The same philosophy applies that also applies to the men in terms of medical care, video analysis and goalkeeper training.” After all, women’s football is just as important to him, the 42-year-old asserts. Therefore be this one too “close interlocking” developed.

Coach Niko Arnautis sees it as one “big step towards professionalization”. When the board saw “What my girls do, everything was quickly done to ensure that we too came to the professional camp. For us, that’s a huge appreciation.” At the beginning of the season, his ensemble trained at the public sports facility at Rebstockbad. It would be flattering to describe the conditions already used under the predecessor club 1. FFC Frankfurt as semi-professional.

The conditions on the vine were sometimes adventurous

“The site at the Rebstock was an urban facility where you didn’t really know which club you were,” explains captain Tanja Pawollek and tells: “Then sometimes children ran across the pitch. You came to training and didn’t feel that you were playing for Eintracht Frankfurt. That was a tiresome topic for a long time. Now you come here, the Eintracht logo is everywhere, the men train in the square next door, you eat here and the staff recognizes you.”

The step was from their point of view “without alternative”to develop further. In the meantime, the quality of the training is also good “Definitely gotten better.” Her club colleague Laura Feiersinger also refers to the “psychological aspect” of really feeling like you belong now. Pawollek: “Of course you can always network more with the men and take advantage of the opportunities.”

Eintracht has had women’s football since 2010

Further improvements are in the works: the premises in the winter sports hall, the former training facility for United Volleys, will soon be converted in such a way that there will be a permanent home for professional women’s football under the eagle roof. With appropriate branding in the Eintracht colors. The team should then primarily use the associated grass field (“Kleine Kampfbahn”), which is equipped with a lawn heating system. The German national team used to train here regularly.

The Eintracht professional team was formed in 2020 from the merger with 1. FFC Frankfurt, but women’s football has been around here since 2010. Board spokesman Axel Hellmann recalls one “hard fight” from that time: Several executives would have actually said 13 years ago: “It doesn’t fit our culture.” Today, Hellmann, who is interim leader of the German Football League (DFL), is convinced that licensed clubs should also offer women’s football at the highest level, “But for this to happen, the basics that we already had in place first have to be created.” Plenty of youth teams namely.

The boom is noticeable in Frankfurt

Eintracht has long been benefiting from the interest fueled by the women’s European Championship in England. Five Frankfurt women can hope for the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand (July 20th to August 20th). Many Eintracht supporters are familiar with names and faces, and parts of the fan scene have also discovered the women with a start. The 1,531 seats in the Brentanobad stadium for home games are often sold out weeks in advance.

More than 55,000 people have subscribed to the Adlerträgerinnen Instagram channel – before the merger with 1. FFC Frankfurt it was just 6,500. National striker Freigang, who sometimes reaches an audience of millions with her self-deprecating short videos, can no longer serve all interview requests. “Just having the courage to play several games in the big stadiums was a decisive step. You can now see what’s possible. That should be another motivation.”says the Austrian national player Feiersinger.

The next record will soon be announced in Cologne

The 23,200 spectators who streamed into the Frankfurt Arena for the opening game against FC Bayern (0-0) are still a record for the women’s Bundesliga. The number should be surpassed when Eintracht visits relegation-prone 1. FC Köln on April 23, who then play in the big stadium for the first time in the club’s history. Arnautis is looking forward to this further highlight. “The main thing is that we’re back. We’re asked to perform and remain approachable“, stresses the German-Greek, who was born in Frankfurt, and adds with a smile: “We play honest football. And sometimes we do more than the men.”

Exchange with Oliver Glasner – and in Seville the women were there

The 42-year-old Arnautis also maintains contact with men’s head coach Oliver Glasner. “Regardless of whether I’m preparing for Werder women and he’s preparing for Stuttgart men, in the end it’s about football. It’s just nice when you share experiences.” As far as the work is concerned, there are hardly any differences anymore: “He will certainly have one or two more press appointments, but otherwise the effort is the same. Coaching is a full-time job.”

There have also been encounters between the active players and the women’s trips to the men’s European Cup match at FC Barcelona and the Europa League final in Seville proved extremely helpful in strengthening the bond. “It was another motivation for us”, emphasizes Pawollek. With this, the club sent a sign of recognition to the outside world.

Axel Hellmann warns of a three-class society

Krösche sees the increased exchange within the departments as a basis for “To take the next steps with the women: We were third last season – we want to be at least that again”. But Eintracht boss Hellmann is skeptical at this point: When saying goodbye to sports director Siegfried Dietrich on Monday (February 20th, 2023), the SGE maker very clearly criticized the “Three Class Society” in the women’s Bundesliga and warned against “cemented conditions”, which would put pressure on the tension and also cost interest in the medium to long term. It would be the same every year: “Wolfsburg and Bayern at the top, then Hoffenheim and us and then the rest.” In fact, the table after 15 matchdays offers exactly this picture.

Last summer, Eintracht failed in the first qualifying tournament in the first round of the group stage of the Champions League at Ajax Amsterdam. According to Hellmann, there is still a lot missing in sporting and economic terms compared to the top teams VfL Wolfsburg and FC Bayern, who have shared the championship and DFB Cup for ten years. A women’s Bundesliga club spent an average of almost three million euros in the 2021/2022 season.

Eintracht Frankfurt should easily exceed this sum, but the club does not provide exact information on the women’s budget. The predecessor club 1. FFC Frankfurt was the last Bundesliga team to win the Women’s Champions League in 2015, but as a purely women’s football club it lost touch afterwards and the merger with Eintracht three years ago was unavoidable in order to survive. During this phase, Dietrich also took over, but then had to take several breaks for health reasons.

Katharina Kiel took over the job from Siegfried Dietrich

His successor is Katharina Kiel as Technical Director, who, as an entrepreneur and former Bundesliga player, has completed the DFL and DFB “Management in Professional Football” certification program. The 30-year-old coordinates transfers, contract extensions and budget issues directly with Krösche, with the Eintracht manager making it clear: “The decisions, for example when players are signed, are made by those responsible, i.e. Katharina Kiel and Niko Arnautis, but of course I’m always informed. We have a jour fixe every week where we discuss the topics.”

At the beginning of the month in the home game against SC Freiburg (4-1) on a cold Friday evening, Krösche, Glasner and Hellmann were back in the stands without much ado. At Eintracht it is now taken for granted.