In the first attempt, the HSV women missed promotion to the second Bundesliga. The project should still be sustainable, emphasizes youth director Horst Hrubesch, who particularly supports women in the club. But it hasn’t been forgotten that ten years ago HSV withdrew its women’s team from the Bundesliga. And behind the scenes it’s rumbling again.
The EM in England gave a whole new picture of women’s football in Germany too. Not only because of the place in the final, which the DFB-Elf only lost to the hosts in extra time, but also because of the high quality on the pitch and the exciting games. Last but not least, thousands of enthusiastic people on the Römer in Frankfurt, who celebrated the team’s return, testified to the new enthusiasm.
“I’m not so sure what it will look like now in terms of the DFB, associations or in Germany. I always have the feeling that there are a lot of hot words at the moment.”
— Former national coach Horst Hrubesch
“This European championship for women simply showed that you are obliged to go this route. That the Bundesliga teams actually have to accept it,” says Hrubesch in the NDR interview. It is well known that the former women’s national coach has a heart for the women. Now he hopes to find even more supporters. However, despite the success of the DFB women, he is not sure – quite the opposite: “I’m not so sure what it will look like in terms of the DFB, associations or in Germany. I always have the feeling that are a lot of hot words at the moment. I hope it doesn’t fizzle out again.”
Regional league championship worthless in the end
The “women’s football project” at HSV, which Hrubesch has promoted, should by no means come to nothing. However, the first attempt at promotion by the ambitious Hamburg women ended bitterly in the summer. Unbeaten, with 110:17 goals and a 16-point lead in the end, coach Lewe Timm’s team celebrated the championship in the Regionalliga Nord in May. The problem: In June there were two more promotion games against the champions of the Northeast season, Turbine Potsdam II.
And even though the HSV women won the first leg 1-0 in front of almost 1,800 (!) fans in their home stadium on Hagenbeckstraße, they had their first black day of the whole season in the second leg. After a 0:4 defeat, which was initiated by individual mistakes, the promotion dreams had burst.
“It was a roller coaster ride – extremely upsetting – and in the end it was definitely a used day,” says captain Victoria Schulz. The granddaughter of HSV legend “World Cup Willi” Schulz had torn a ligament and a splintered ankle bone in the week before the promotion first leg and was doomed to watch. “We were unbeaten until June 19. It’s bitter that it ended like this, but it’s just the danger in this mode.”
HSV has some catching up to do with its women
However, the rise should only be postponed. And Hrubesch is – unlike at the national level – firmly convinced that HSV will continue to push its women. “We have clearly spoken out in favor of it. It will be sustainable. There is no way around it,” emphasizes the 71-year-old, who made the promotion of the women’s department a condition of his commitment when he took office as junior manager at HSV two years ago. He knows very well that the club has a lot to make up for.
The clear cut follows the most successful year of the club
In 2011, Hamburger SV experienced the most successful year of its female footballers to date. Under coach Achim Feifel, the first team ended up in a sensational fourth place in the year of the home World Cup – behind the grandees from Frankfurt, Potsdam and Duisburg. The second became champions in the second division.
A lot would have been possible in Hamburg, not least because of good youth work. However, after the vice president and women’s football promoter Katja Kraus had left with the sacked club boss Bernd Hoffmann, dark times began for the women.
“In March 2011, we went through the cash register and found out that we would have been insolvent in the summer as things stood at the time,” recalls Hoffmann’s successor, Carl-Edgar Jarchow. Saving was inevitable – and cuts were made not least among women. The second team was canceled and the first team’s budget was reduced by a third to around 500,000 euros. A total of 250,000 euros was saved in this way. Compared to the high sums in the men’s area, it’s actually “peanuts”, but for the women it’s a lot of money.
Instead of looking for a compromise, the forced descent follows
However, the men – at that time still in the Bundesliga – kept panting behind their high standards. Jarchow and his board colleagues continued to save away from men’s football – and again it hit the women. Because the budget was supposed to be another 100,000 euros lower, the sporting management explained that it would no longer be possible to set up a team suitable for the Bundesliga.
But instead of looking for a compromise, Jarchow announced a little later that the Bundesliga license for women would be returned. And because there was no registration for the second league, it went down to the third-rate regional league.
“The deregistration didn’t do us any good in women’s football either. It was a completely wrong signal.”
— National coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg
Ten years after the forced relegation, Martina Voss-Tecklenburg is still shaking her head: “We found it incredibly sad, the deregistration didn’t do us any good in women’s football either. It was a completely wrong signal,” said the national coach, who was then Bundesliga club Jena coached. “But I’m all the more glad that Horst Hrubesch, among others, is putting this focus back on girls’ and women’s football. They really, really want to get HSV back up. If HSV again in three or four years If you want to be in the first division, that would be a cool sign.”
Much encouragement despite missed promotion
Hrubesch returned to HSV in the summer of 2020 – and initiated some changes. The registered association, to which the women’s section officially belongs, and the football club each contribute 50 percent to the project, both financially and in terms of “man and woman power”. There is talk of a budget of around 350,000 euros. With the former Bundesliga player Catharina Schimpf, a coordinator for women’s football was also installed as the manager of the team.
Despite the missed promotion, the team received a lot of encouragement – not least within the club. A few days after the second leg, there was a standing ovation for the women at the general meeting. “It was in a phase when the girls were still really depressed,” reports manager Schimpf. “That did a lot to eliminate frustration and grief. That’s when the ‘right now’ mentality came up.”
Second attempt – with an even better team?
The coordinator had planned on two tracks – and also negotiated contracts for the regional league with all newcomers. A total of nine new players are part of the squad, including some from the U17s of HSV, who sensationally became German champions last season. In addition, the budget was already fixed in advance: “We said: It doesn’t change anything in itself what we do. If we stay in the regional league, we will plan the squad and the season just as ‘straight forward’.”
Hrubesch and Schimpf are certain that despite the departure of top scorer Sophie Nachtigall (Eintracht Frankfurt) and Bundesliga-experienced Anne van Bonn (end of career), the team is better than last season. “Königstransfer” is Nina Brüggemann, who is returning to her roots from Bundesliga club Leverkusen.
But again cuts in the budget threaten
So everything is fine at HSV? Not at all! The club’s financial situation is similar to that of ten years ago. Again, every euro is turned over to provide the men with as much money as possible. Added to this are the costs for the very important investments in the stadium. According to “Sport Bild”, CFO Thomas Wüstefeld has not released the guarantee of 350,000 euros for the women’s budget for a long time. Which led to a dispute between Wüstefeld and Hrubesch.
Club President and Chairman of the Supervisory Board Marcell Jansen explains: “Of course, it’s a problem if you start everything up now and then play in the same league for ages.” The ex-professional, who unsuccessfully campaigned ten years ago for the men’s team to do their part financially to save the women, calls promotion to the second division “the next logical step”. You know “that you now have resources that are at least there to go a league higher”.
Conversely, this means that it could lead to budget cuts if the HSV women miss promotion again. But unlike ten years ago, they apparently have it in their own hands to avert financial losses through sporting success.
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sports club | 08/28/2022 | 11:35 p.m
