“We can’t play games, we can’t support the top players if fewer and fewer women play football”, said the 52-year-old in an interview with the “Frankfurter Rundschau”. The decline in girls is also alarming. The greatest decrease is recorded in the age groups at which puberty occurs: “Training and competition are often just not interesting enough anymore.”
“Must have ear much stronger at the base”
For example, B-Juniors would have told you that Sunday morning play dates would not suit them because they like to go out on Saturday evenings, explained Sinning. She demanded: “When it comes to these issues, we need to listen much more closely to the grassroots.”
The professor of sports pedagogy and sports didactics also addressed the question of how to get more girls with a migration background to play football. “Basically, I think that women in typically male-dominated sports such as boxing or soccer have it easier these days than men who are interested in sports attributed to women, such as synchronized swimming, ballet or ice dancing.”she said.
Offers in kindergartens and schools
It is difficult for the clubs to get into traditional family structures where men still hold the classic management position. “That’s why for me the kindergarten and the school are the first approach to creating offers. If the girls there are enthusiastic about football, then they also manage to convince their father that they want to play football in the club.”explained Sinning.
She had surprisingly prevailed against Rainer Koch in the DFB elections. Sinning used to play football herself, before she started working as a football official alongside her job.
Source: dpa