Jovana Damnjanovic (left) and FC Bayern were eliminated by Paris in the Champions League, but played in the large Munich Arena for the first time.
Photo: imago/Mis
The weeks of big decisions in football are also in full swing for women. This weekend in the Bundesliga it’s all about the title, international starting places and relegation. With a win on the penultimate day at bottom FC Carl Zeiss Jena, VfL Wolfsburg could dethrone the defending champions from FC Bayern Munich. In the fight for the Champions League, a draw on Saturday would be enough for Turbine Potsdam to keep their direct rivals Eintracht Frankfurt at a safe distance in fourth place. And if the SC Sand footballers don’t win against 1. FC Köln, they will have to join Jena in the 2nd Bundesliga.
Shortly before the season finale, on Thursday, the German Football Association (DFB) presented the season report for the past 2020/2021 season in a digital media round. The big catchphrase that was widely used in the media from this hour-long event was »record sales«. The 12 clubs generated around 15 million euros, almost two million more than in the previous year. The DFB also emphasized an “increase in media visibility”. »In the ›Online‹ and ›Print‹ areas, an increase in reach of around 15 percent was recorded.«
Anyone who heard Siegfried Dietrich speak in addition to these success stories on Thursday could easily have painted a rosy picture of the future. One or two more years – “then we’ll have a full profit in the Bundesliga,” said the chairman of the DFB Committee for Women’s Bundesliga, who also heads the women’s department at Eintracht Frankfurt. “Now there will effectively be a departure.”
According to Dietrich, the often announced departure should now lead to “earning money with women’s football in the foreseeable future”. Other figures in the season report show that this is still wishful thinking: At around 30 million euros, the expenditure of all Bundesliga clubs is twice as high as the income. Even in this disparity, Dietrich sees a good development. “We are in an investment phase,” he said, referring to the many clubs that are to grow under the umbrella of a men’s license club. With an average loss of 1.2 million euros, these nine Bundesliga clubs are responsible for the negative overall result. The three women’s clubs Turbine Potsdam, SGS Essen and SC Sand, on the other hand, made a profit, albeit a very small one.
DFB Vice President Sabine Mammitzsch praised this season report, only the second to be published, on Thursday as a sign of “transparency”. However, the fact that only the key figures for the Bundesliga as a whole are public and not the finances of the individual clubs makes a real assessment of the situation complicated. So the demonstrably increased interest of sponsors cannot be understood. In the end, is it only FC Bayern, Eintracht Frankfurt and VfL Wolfsburg who benefit from the donors of their men’s Bundesliga teams? The joy of greater media coverage and the resulting increased interest in women’s football can only be shared to a limited extent. Because the DFB bears half of the production costs of the pay-TV partner Magenta Sport with 1.2 million euros. The broadcaster does not announce specific viewer numbers.
When Mammitzsch mentioned that other countries would look to the DFB as a role model when it came to the season report, she also said: “At least we’re back in the lead there.” This sentence describes the development of women’s football in Germany in recent years. It is a sporting and economic fight against the trend. England and Spain in particular, but also France, have made haste – with their leagues and clubs as well as the national teams. This is shown by the sporting results, but also by interest and acceptance. More than 90,000 spectators want to see the footballers from FC Barcelona. And while the Bundesliga has had an average of less than 1,000 spectators per game for years, in England almost four times as many come to the stadiums on average.
Now everything is not bad in this country. The Bundesliga was the only league with three clubs in the group stage of the Champions League this season. But the titles are won by others. What helps? “More money,” says Siegfried Dietrich. He hopes that the new television contract will start in the 2023/2024 season. And from the clubs that should continue to invest. Despite the losses incurred, he sees the increase in personnel costs to an average of almost EUR 1.4 million as a sign of the necessary professionalisation. This is intended to stop the trend that the best players are leaving the Bundesliga. Dietrich promises more visibility in the coming season: “Let yourself be surprised!” Highlight games are important, such as recently when the soccer players from Munich and Wolfsburg made their first appearances in the large arenas of their men’s teams. There should soon be more of that in the Bundesliga, “in four, five, six big stadiums. In this way we can become pioneers again,« says the self-proclaimed professional optimist Dietrich.
