The Bundesliga is already the transfer world champion and a new TV contract is pouring money into their cash-strapped coffers. Women’s football is booming – but in the league there will probably only be a duel between Wolfsburg and Bayern Munich for the title. Meanwhile, the struggling national team is fighting for an Olympic ticket.
Bundesliga fun instead of World Cup disaster – the German national players in particular probably enjoyed the restart. “Sometimes you still think about it,” admits Chantal Hagel, who has said goodbye to Hoffenheim for the new season and is now hoping to “put off the early exit from the World Cup Down Under” in her head at title contenders VfL Wolfsburg.
In any case, the start of the league was promising: for Wolfsburg (3-0 against Bayer Leverkusen) in the long-distance duel with champions Bayern Munich (2-2 at SC Freiburg) as well as for the second northern club Werder Bremen, which played against promoted team 1. FC Nürnberg Won 5:1.
Tough fight for two tickets to the Olympics
And the national team is also planning to make quick amends. This Monday we will be preparing for the Nations Cup games on Friday in Denmark and on Tuesday (September 26th) in Bochum against Iceland. Only national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg, who is ill, will not be there. “A super difficult situation for the team,” said former national player Navina Omilade, who is now the first woman to sit on the supervisory board of men’s second division club Holstein Kiel, in the NDR sports club.
The unsettled team has to be successful in order to get one of the only two European tickets for next year’s Olympic Games in Paris (hosts France are set): “I hope the girls can handle it well.”
The only way to the title is through Bayern?
Omilade feels less uncertainty about the situation in the league: “The duel between Wolfsburg and Bayern can probably be expected again. But I also think that Frankfurt and Hoffenheim will move closer and make the event more exciting.” A statement with a question mark, because Eintracht suffered a 2-0 defeat at SGS Essen on Sunday – after the relegation of Turbine Potsdam, the only remaining team without a strong men’s club behind them.
For most experts it seems certain that the only way to the title is through FC Bayern. The Munich team has significantly strengthened itself with the addition of Danish Pernille Harder and Magdalena Eriksson from Sweden (both from Chelsea FC). In addition, the English European champion and vice world champion Georgia Stanway continues to play in coach Alexander Straus’ team.
Wolfsburg sees itself as a challenger
Wolfsburg’s captain Alexandra Popp, the newly crowned female footballer of the year, is definitely stacking up low given the further increased quality of the Bayern squad. Your VfL team must define itself primarily through “team spirit, mentality and the will to win”. Ralf Kellermann, director of Wolfsburg women’s football, echoes the same sentiments: “Bayern are starting the season as the top favorites and have significantly strengthened themselves. But we are facing up to it and as a team we have the goal of becoming German champions.”
World champion in transfers from abroad
Aspiration and reality – this will soon form a unity in women’s football. But “there is still a long way to go,” said Freiburg’s sports director Jochen Saier during a discussion with the German Football Association (DFB) shortly before the start of the season. The average attendance has risen from a meager 821 to 2,723 visitors within a year, but compared to the leagues in England and the USA, the Bundesliga clubs still have to bake smaller rolls.
Even though more and more clubs are able to play highlight games in large stadiums and, according to FIFA, the Bundesliga is the world champion in transfers from abroad this summer. 55 players moved from other leagues to Germany’s elite class.
However, according to the FIFA report, most transfers are still made without a transfer fee. Payment was only due for 66 of the 829 international transfers. For 84.4 percent of the players, their contract had expired at the time of their move. For men this year it was 56.6 percent.
Omilade: “Look for comparison with European leagues”
In international comparison, there is a gap in many respects, says 61-time national player Omilade, who ended her career in Wolfsburg by winning the triple in 2013. She doesn’t think it’s necessary to emulate men’s football. “It would be better for us to compare ourselves with the other European leagues so as not to lose touch.” That must be the claim, said the 41-year-old. You can still be self-confident: “If you look at the last few years, we have made a huge leap.”
Schult founds a players’ association
The salaries of top players have also increased dramatically. But only those of the top stars. According to the DFB, the average gross salary of a Bundesliga player is 3,500 euros. Undoubtedly an unreliable number, calculates national goalkeeper Almuth Schult in the NDR sports club and asks: “How much money goes to the top third of the players from Wolfsburg, Munich or Frankfurt and thus distorts the statistics for those who are below the subsistence level?”
A Sportschau survey confirms the criticism. According to their own statements, half of all first and second division players receive less than 500 euros per month. That’s not nearly enough to be able to concentrate on football. To change that, Schult has founded a players’ association. “We hope to bring the players’ voices more to the fore and be able to be a little louder.”
She received recognition from ex-Wolfsburg player Omilade, who scored eleven goals in 103 Bundesliga games for Lower Saxony: “A great move from Almuth. There’s no other way; otherwise nothing will happen.”
Name sponsor, TV contract – but Monday games
A new name sponsor of the league (Google Pixel) and a TV contract worth 5.175 million euros, which guarantees each club a “bonus” of 388,000 euros, should ensure more public awareness and increased value for advertisers. “That helps enormously,” says former national player and current DFB overall coordinator for women in football, Doris Fitschen.
However, the league had to swallow the toad of Monday games. A problem for players who work or go to university. However, Omilade does not share the criticism expressed by Alexandra Popp, among others: “I think it’s good. Of course you have to make sacrifices,” she says. But she thinks it’s more important to have the unique selling point on this match day.
Only one female coach in the Bundesliga
Freiburg’s sports director Saier brings up another point that could be improved: women’s football is still “too male-heavy”. Freiburg’s Theresa Merk, once an assistant coach in Wolfsburg, is the only woman to hold a head coaching position in the Bundesliga. This is probably no coincidence if you look at the corresponding data from the executive suites of German football. The proportion of women on the boards and management of all first and second division clubs is a full three percent. Only men rule in the regional and state associations.
Things don’t look any better in the world football association FIFA: only eleven of the 211 associations are led by women. In the European association UEFA, women are at the top in four out of 55 associations.
Omilade: Attributes for women’s football make you proud
Navina Omilade is still an exception as a supervisory board member in Kiel. “I’m pleased that Holstein had the courage to take this step; and that I, as the first woman in this position, can also be a bit of a role model. It’s an exciting task and a lot of fun.”
Just like women’s football as a whole – even if the hymns of praise about the approachable, likeable and watchable football are sometimes a bit strained. She doesn’t think so at all, says Omilade: “The attributes fit – and we are proud of them.”
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Sports club | Sep 17, 2023 | 10:50 p.m
