Almuth Schult is a guest on the BR podcast “Pizza and Fries”. The ARD football expert talks to host Felix Neureuther about gender equality in sport – and has a few ideas on how the imbalance could be eliminated.
Olympic champion, European champion, Champions League winner, six-time German champion, world goalkeeper: Almuth Schult has achieved almost everything in football. The fact that the 32-year-old’s level of awareness is still significantly lower than that of fellow goalkeepers such as Oliver Kahn and Manuel Neuer can be explained above all by the small ending “in” that stands behind each of her successes. Because women’s football is still far less popular in Germany than men’s football.
Almuth Schult reports on skepticism towards women’s football
“Today there is still something like that where you go somewhere and they say: ‘No, women shouldn’t play football. They have no business there. You can’t look at that,” says Schult in the BR podcast “Pizza & French fries”. She has little use for the argument that she keeps coming across: “Women are slower anyway. And with our district league team we would win against the Bundesliga. – But that’s because you have physical differences. You will too “We can’t let men run against women in the 100-meter sprint. Even though a woman might have a better running style, she won’t be able to win,” said Schult.
Schult sees historical reasons for the big difference in attention that women’s footballers receive compared to their male colleagues: “Men started at a time when there was no television. When television was invented, they had one “The entire white field was taken up. When the women’s section came, the broadcast slot was completely occupied.” This discrepancy would also exist in other sports. “The only event that receives almost equal coverage is the Olympics. And that’s once every four years, once in winter, once in summer.”
Schult about male footballers: “Could initiate progress”
“Pizza and Fries” host Felix Neureuther points to skiing as a possible role model: equal pay. The status of skiing in society is also very good when it comes to women. There is a lot of reporting about it. When a Mikaela Shiffrin drives, something like that is spread on social media. I have the feeling in America, if you do some blatant action in basketball, in the women’s league, then the men over there celebrate it too.”
Schult hopes that his male colleagues in football will contribute to a change: “They would be the ones who could initiate progress. If a Mala Grohs made a super save in the goal and Manuel Neuer posted it, that would have social value.”
Schult: “Lack of support begins in the youth sector”
Schult sees two major areas of work that need to be improved in women’s football: “It’s all about respect and support.” The lack of support begins in the youth sector: “We have youth performance centers in Germany, but actually only male offspring are supported there. Not a single woman is supported there. How are the female players supposed to become equally good?” asks Schult.
In Schult’s eyes, the financial differences also hinder the further development of women’s performance levels. “If you sign a contract in the Bundesliga, the minimum salary is 250 euros a month. Euros, not a thousand or anything, but really 250 euros,” explains Schult, estimating the average salary in Germany’s top division at “800 to 1,200 euros gross.” . But there are exceptions: “There are three clubs that pay professionally: VfL Wolfsburg, FC Bayern Munich and Eintracht Frankfurt. As a top player, it may be that you earn in the upper four-figure range per month, maybe even now “earnings in the lower five-figure range.”
Demand from the Bundesliga: 0.5 percent of revenue to the women’s division
Here, too, Schult holds his male colleagues responsible: “If every Bundesliga club gave 0.5 percent of its income to the women’s division, it would probably be enough to have a certain amount of support.” Schult made it clear that the female footballers would not demand to earn as much as the men: “No national team player has demanded, we now need equal pay. It’s really more about what kind of livelihood you have. It’s about what happens in the Bundesliga. That girls have to take time off from their jobs because a weekday game takes place on Monday or Friday.”
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Source: BR24Sport on the radio January 17, 2024 – 8:55 a.m
