The US League has made a big step forward to 14 teams. Can this also succeed in women’s football in Germany?
When the new season will kick off on Friday evening (05.09.2025) in Frankfurt, the women’s football Bundesliga goes into a new era: 14 instead of 12 teams, 26 instead of 22 game days. With the 1. FC Nürnberg, Hamburger SV and Union Berlin, three teams from the 2nd league celebrated the promotion. Now the question arises: does more teams also mean more quality?
More teams, more locations, more opportunities
In the United States, the expansion to 14 teams last season National Womens Soccer League (NWSL) led to an enormous growth thrust in spectators and media revenue. In addition, more young talents got playing time, the performance density grew and the interest of star players worldwide has increased.
All of this also hopes for the former national goalkeeper and TV expert Almuth Schult from increasing in Germany. “Our players need additional games at a high level and we have to have more opportunities to train players“, She says. As an opportunity, she also sees that more referees can be promoted and that there are other coaching and management posts.
More clubs also mean: more locations in Germany where fans can see first division football. For example in Berlin. In the previous years, the spectators had come to the game days in significantly larger numbers than with Master Bayern Munich and more than 3,000 season tickets for the first division season have already been sold.
With the new locations, I could imagine that the number of spectators will continue to increase. Above all, it is good to have new offers regionally.
Thomas Gerstner, sporting director of SGS Essen, sees this development positively: “The path of women’s football goes slowly but steadily. And if we now have more good games, it brings more fans to women’s football.“The 58-year-old has long been an advocate of bringing more teams into the first league. For him, this offers the chance to get additional talents from the under areas of professional football, which is not possible in the second division.
It is missing Professionalization The 2nd league?
Wouldn’t it be the right step to advance professionalization before making the first division bigger? No, says Gerstner. “Professing all 16 second division teams is difficult because the prerequisites for most teams are not available. Therefore, professionalization in German women’s football is only possible in my opinion if I put on the first division. ” When it comes to him, preferably two teams, as is intended for the 2026/27 season in the NWSL.
But this is exactly where journalist Mara Pfeiffer sees the big challenge. For them, the connection of the second division is not considered too little. “For a well -functioning first division you also need a stable second division. ” Almuth Schult also sees a great need to professionalize the second division, similar to how it happened in England. The differences between the clubs are still too great. “For example, between the 1st FC Nürnberg and Union Berlin, I think you can see a great discrepancy from the professional facility of the team Jer “says the 34-year-old.
No bigger one Performance grades to be expected
It will only be shown whether this discrepancy is reflected in the new season in an even larger performance gradient. But one thing is clear: in order not to be left behind in international competition, a balanced league with high competition intensity is necessary. Neither Gerstner nor Pfeiffer or Schults believe that the increase in a greater performance gap is mandatory.
Rather, Pfeiffer suspects that not only three or four clubs can play at the top, but the break will only come later. Nevertheless, the football expert emphasizes: “My hope would be that it will not be too clear too quickly.“A lonely march of Bavaria at the top should rather harm the attractiveness of the league – increasing or not.
Close schedule one Challenge
Almuth Schult sees the bigger challenge in a narrow schedule, especially with regard to the attractiveness. “Now it is played again at 12 p.m. on the weekend, actually we wanted to get away from such kick -off times.“Due to the frame mink calendar, those responsible for FC Bayern and VfL Wolfsburg also voted against an increase.”We are sure that the quality is there in Germany to play with 14 teams and have a balanced competition“, emphasizes Ralf Kellermann, sporting director at VfL in an interview with the NDR.
With a view to the introduced playoff round in the Champions League And the planning of a FIFA Club World Cup is challenging the additional games in the Bundesliga – only that was our argument against the increase.
The additional game days and the longer arrival could also become a problem for some players. Because there are no minimum salaries in the Bundesliga, some players have to work or study on the side. Even if Essen’s sporting director sees fewer challenges here, Mara Pfeiffer notes that she has long been waiting for the announced growth and professionalization plan of the DFB who wanted to clarify topics such as minimum salaries.
Rising TV revenue, but not through the increase
After all, the current media rights agree to the growth of women’s football in Germany: With 5.2 million euros a year, the league was able to increase TV revenue by sixteen times, according to a current study by McKinsey. But Schult notes: “The television money now remains the same as part of the increase, only more games are broadcast.“And it is not enough to cover the costs either. Even if TV and viewers have recently increased by 2.65 million euros per club, some clubs write red numbers.
The increase in the league could increase the economic gap between the clubs. More teams mean more away game days, more travel, more effort. And with it more costs. “This is of course more challenging for clubs like us, but in the course of professionalization it is completely normal to take these steps“, says Gerstner from SGS, who is currently the only club without a men’s license association.
Whether it was the right time or the best order to promote professionalization with the increase in 14 teams: Almuth Schult is happy that something happens at all. “And in the long term you have to see whether not only the size, but also the quality is right.“