How does women’s football continue to develop while maintaining its identity? Ex-national goalkeeper Katja Kraus sees the upcoming World Cup as an opportunity for further development – but recommends a distinction from the men’s area.
“A great World Cup would certainly be another acceleration factor. It is more important, however, to develop an idea of how everyday sporting life, i.e. the Bundesliga, can be permanently attractive,” said the 52-year-old of the “German Press Agency” before the tournament in Australia and New Zealand from July 20 to August 20.
Kraus was the first woman in the Bundesliga to be a board member at Hamburger SV and is a co-founder of the “Football can do more” initiative. The network is committed to more diversity and equality in football.
Women’s football “only a reflection of the men’s Bundesliga”?
“In order to continue to support this positive development, you need to set the right course, above all answering the question of how women’s football should be in the future,” explained Kraus, referring to the boom after the successful EM of the DFB team in 2022 England. “There is a risk that the women’s Bundesliga will ultimately reflect the economic power of the men’s Bundesliga.”
It is therefore urgently necessary to think about “what alternative models there are for how one’s own identity and a viable business model can develop. How some undesirable developments in men’s football can be avoided, especially with regard to closeness, conveying values and solidarity”, Kraus continues.
Own sponsors for the soccer players like Vorwerk recently, whether and Google Pixel are also so important because the women are “no longer bycatch in the sponsorship packages of the DFB,” said Kraus, the managing partner of the sports marketing agency Jung von Matt / sports and once played for the German champions FSV Frankfurt. “The players have to have the strongest voice when it comes to where women’s football should go. It’s their game.”