Not VfL Wolfsburg, but Bayern Munich and Eintracht Frankfurt represent German women’s football in the Champions League. The anticipation is great.
The term comes up again and again. “Childhood dream” is usually what it means when the Eintracht players have to tell them what it means to them to play in the Champions League group phase.
Perhaps that is justified at this location, because nowhere else can history be portrayed so credibly. Before the opening game at the Swedish representative FC Rosengård (Tuesday 6.45 p.m.), the pivot inevitably has to go to the predecessor club 1. FFC Frankfurt.
In 2015, Angela Merkel watched in Berlin
Because when the only European Cup competition for women was launched 22 years ago – at that time it was still UEFA Women’s Cup – the newly founded women’s football club from the Main metropolis was immediately successful. The generation around the future world champion Birgit Prinz won their first international title in Frankfurt in 2002 against the Swedish champions Umea IK. Six years later, an extraordinary number of 27,640 spectators flocked to the old Waldstadion, where Umea and its world footballer Marta lost again in the European Cup final.
And in 2015, Chancellor Angela Merkel sat in the stands in Berlin as tactician Colin Bell favored Paris St Germain surprised in the fourth FFC coup. Frankfurt’s manager Siegfried Dietrich mixed his celebration at the Römer with the premonition of having witnessed the last Champions League triumph of an all-women’s football club. In retrospect, the mastermind may have been right. Without the merger with Eintracht, which took place in 2020, the location would probably have disappeared into obscurity like its former arch-rival Potsdam.
Today the big brands are influential
The competition is dominated by global brands who simply divert a few million from men’s football. The benchmark is FC Barcelona with its Spanish world champions and top international stars. Eintracht will host the defending champions in the second group game (November 22nd).
The hope for a new record setting is not unfounded. For the Eintracht bosses it was a given that all home games would be played in the arena. Why were the women allowed to watch the men’s Europa League festival in Barcelona and Seville in spring 2022? This should give rise to the incentive to create “magical nights” yourself.
Great anticipation at Eintracht Frankfurt – despite the small squad
“We are all really excited because we have been working towards playing in this competition for years”says Laura Freigang, who, along with goalkeeper Stina Johannes, Sophia Kleinherne, Sara Doorsoun and Nicole Anyomi, is one of the current German national players who are part of the Hessians’ established structure. The problem for Eintracht: The squad lacks the breadth for the relentless pursuit of deadlines in the coming weeks.
Coach Niko Arnautis is still full of anticipation before his first business trip to Malmö: “Playing internationally with Frankfurt is something special.” However, Frankfurt’s technical director Katharina Kiel has criticized elsewhere: “There is clearly still room for improvement when it comes to bonuses so that they not only cover the costs of participation, but also give the clubs the opportunity to make investments.”
FC Bayern starts on campus
The 24 million euros in prize money distributed by UEFA in the women’s Champions League cannot be compared with the sums for men in the same competition (2.002 billion euros). FC Bayern is primarily looking for sporting merits, starting against AS Roma (Wednesday 6.45 p.m.). The champions then continue against Paris St. Germain (November 23rd) and Ajax Amsterdam (December 14th). “It’s the most difficult group, there’s no doubt about that”says Bayern coach Alexander Straus. Nevertheless, the Norwegian is aware of the internal goal of reaching at least the quarter-finals.
The footballers from FC Bayern Munich play their games on the Bayern Campus.
The undefeated league leaders will first kick off on campus, as any move to the arena in Munich needs to be carefully considered due to the high operating costs. Munich’s sporting director Bianca Rech, who won the Champions League “medium-term goal” calls, reports the need for changes to the mode: “There is no question that the format needs to be adapted to the positive development. In my opinion, more teams should be allowed to qualify directly for the group phase.”
The Qualification mode is up for debate
So far the procedure is such that the runners-up and third-place finishers from the top nations eliminate each other in advance. From Italy, Juventus Turin failed in a penalty shootout against Eintracht. Only he has it from England Chelsea FC made it into the top 16 Manchester United and Arsenal WFC got stuck in qualifying and the playoffs. UEFA cannot like the fact that the most professionally marketed league in Europe with the most lucrative television market only has one representative.
In addition, as is well known, VfL Wolfsburg, who failed in the playoffs against Paris FC, also fell victim to the most successful German club of the last decade. VfL director Ralf Kellermann noted in the specialist magazine “Kicker” that although the number of clubs, “We are now pushing women’s football the way we have been doing it for years”has grown rapidly in Germany and Europe, “But the pool of players hasn’t grown“.
Nadine Keßler announces changes
Nadine Keßler, a former world footballer under Kellermann at VfL Wolfsburg and now women’s football director at UEFA, at least has one “Revision process” announced. Your counter-argument sounds somehow plausible: “The format of the group stage is designed to include at least clubs from ten different associations. This was a conscious decision to drive growth at national level in more than just a few countries, some leagues.”
Clubs, leagues and national associations would now work together in a task force. Apparently there are plans in the drawer to expand the female premier class or to create a second competition. However, due to existing marketing contracts, changes cannot take effect until the 2025/2026 season at the earliest.