The DFB has lost half of its girls’ teams in the past ten years. Only after Corona is there an upward trend again.
These numbers are alarming. The German Football Association lost half of its registered girls teams from 2010 to 2020. In 2010, 8,665 girls’ teams – juniors up to the age of 16 – took part in the game. Then it went downhill year after year. Finally, in the 21/22 season, clubs registered just 3,987 girls’ teams – a drop of 54 percent.
For comparison: the number of boys’ junior teams only fell by around 20 percent in the same period.
Decrease in teams and players
It doesn’t look much different for the active players compared to the teams. According to the DFB, 118,595 girls played football in German clubs in 2016/17. After that, the numbers also fell. In 2020/21 there were only 78,073 players.
| Year | number | |
|---|---|---|
| 2016/17 | 118,959 | |
| 2017/18 | 111.019 | |
| 2018/19 | 104,282 | |
| 2019/20 | 90,630 | |
| 2020/21 | 78,073 | |
| 2021/22 | 103.205 |
The number from the 2021/22 season gives hope, because the clubs registered a total of 103,205 female players under the age of 16 – an increase of at least 32 percent. However, with this number it must be taken into account that practically a whole year was canceled during the Corona break. These girls registered after the Corona break, so in a way it is the numbers of two cohorts.
DFB Vice President Silke Sinning
Vice President Sinning concerned
The new DFB Vice President Silke Sinning is worried about the situation in the girls’ and women’s field in German football. “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”.
Sinning was elected to the association’s management floor at the DFB Bundestag in March. One of her areas of responsibility: to make girls’ football more attractive again and to recruit more coaches for young women. Sinning also wants to support regional campaigns such as the “Girls on the Ball” project in Munich or the nationwide Girls’ Day.
Nia Künzer: “Other countries are pulling us away”
After all, in the long term it is also important that the DFB does not lose touch internationally in the women’s field. “We can clearly see that more attention is being paid to women’s football in other countries at the moment and that more progress is being made.”, said sports show expert Nia Künzer. In terms of sport, she is still optimistic. “German football can still keep up with that”, so Künzer.