It’s the same pattern in the Bundesliga: “Why aren’t they just called Bundesliga? Or: Men’s Bundesliga and women’s Bundesliga?” The 31-year-old Schult – who has long been a strong voice when it comes to gender equality – moves to Angel City FC in the USA after the European Championship. She wants to take a close look at how the club and the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) are equipped and marketed. Incidentally, her new club has sold 16,000 season tickets. The “sometimes very unprofessional venues” in the Bundesliga beyond Wolfsburg , Munich, Frankfurt and Hoffenheim will not miss them.
“Absolutely nobody can complain about the training conditions, the accommodation and the support at the DFB,” emphasizes Schult’s club colleague Lena Lattwein. Her concern for everyday life in the clubs is: “That the girls are all about the same level in terms of conditions. That’s more important to me than closing the gap to the men.”
Freigang wants English conditions
International striker Laura Freigang would like to see similar conditions for women’s football in Germany as in the host country of the European Championship: “In England, for example, the clubs in the first division are obliged to have a women’s team,” emphasizes the 24-year-old from Eintracht Frankfurt. She has the feeling “that in England in particular, a lot is being done in the media and there is also strong advertising.” Freigang also hopes above all for more professional structures: “I wouldn’t want to earn millions, to be honest.”
Others, such as Bayern defender Giulia Gwinn, point out that women are increasingly being marketed together with male stars abroad: “In Barcelona, for example, there are pictures of men and women hanging in the Camp Nou, where the whole club is also lived in the stadium. ”
Spain sets milestone
In Spain, the soccer players will also receive an equal share of the bonus payments and television bonuses distributed by UEFA and FIFA – which are of course significantly lower sums than their colleagues. FC Barcelona has set a milestone with the support of the entire club: The team around world footballer Alexia Putellas played in the semi-finals of the premier class against Wolfsburg at Camp Nou in front of a record crowd of 91,648 fans.
The Bundesliga is still hardly noticed in public. Although the DFB had always hoped for a big upswing after each of the successes of the national team – two world champions, eight times European champions and one Olympic champion – and after the home World Cup in 2011. The first league operation remains a subsidy business: an average turnover of 1.26 million euros per season and club is offset by expenses of 2.46 million.
In view of the sums that are moved in men’s football, it is easy for clubs such as champions VfL Wolfsburg, runners-up FC Bayern and the upcoming Champions League participants Eintracht Frankfurt to compensate for the deficit. Nevertheless, in everyday life it is almost always more of a coexistence than a togetherness.
Women coaches in men’s football?
Stephan Lerch also describes the low permeability. The former Wolfsburg master coach complains that coaches of women’s teams in men’s football are so little in demand. “Of course there are differences in athletics and dynamics. But why shouldn’t a coach who can show success in women’s football also be able to deal with men?” says the 37-year-old, who now works in the male youth division at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim is.