IFootball history is currently being written in Marburg: Daniela Rühl is the first woman to head a football district in Hesse. That’s remarkable. The Hessian Football Association (HFV) looks back on a 75-year history. One in which the functionaries changed umpteen times in the 32 districts and yet were always the same: male and experienced.
DFB President Bernd Neuendorf said at the HFV honors evening in Grünberg in early September that there were three other women in a similar role nationwide. Nevertheless, the district of Marburg delivers a novelty: Rühl’s deputy is called Ellen Berghöfer and thus completes the unique duo. No other football district in Germany has ever been headed by two women.
skeptical listeners
Ellen Berghöfer has been an official in the Marburg football district since 1998 and has been chairwoman of the Finance and Accounts Committee at the HFV since autumn 2021. She makes no secret of her impression that women still have to do more than men to be recognized. Sometimes it’s comments, sometimes it’s looks that tell her that the audience is skeptical.
“If it gets too colorful for me, then I list how many years I’ve been doing it and in which league I used to play football, even if I don’t really want to,” she says. “Oh, you know your stuff,” was the multiple reaction.
The “F27 Forum – Women in Soccer” is primarily concerned with professional soccer. The world of amateur sports is far away.
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Image: dpa
After Daniela Rühl was elected chairwoman of her hometown club, TSV Weipoltshausen, in 2009 and took part in her first group meeting, the first contact with her new colleagues was particularly memorable: “One beer, please” – she had been mistaken for a waitress, but not for a club chairman.
In the recent past, at her first association board meeting, she was asked that she was accidentally sitting in Peter Schmidt’s place. Schmidt is Rühl’s predecessor. “I then went to the front of the microphone and told everyone that I’m the new Peter Schmidt and that they call me Daniela Rühl, but that also lightened the mood,” she says and smiles.
Leadership programs for women
Equal rights for women and men is a declared goal in many places. But nothing more. Tanja Gröber, trainer and consultant in the sports clubs and associations, provides a clear example: “Look at the social and cultural diversity of the members in the sports clubs. Then hold up a picture of today’s honorary club and association leadership. Women often find few role models in these structures.”
Gröber advises clubs and associations and accompanies them through change. Among other things, she offers leadership programs specifically for women who want to take on leadership roles on a voluntary basis. This is also the case with the HFV. Programs like “Empowering Women in Football” have taken place more than once.
Eintracht youth players train under floodlights.
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Image: Frank Röth
When asked by the FAS, HFV treasurer Jörn Metzler explained that the volunteers were “the association’s greatest asset”: “Unfortunately, in the context of current social developments, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get people excited about volunteering. We are happy about everyone who volunteers, regardless of gender.” Metzler announces that a leadership program for women will take place again in the medium term.
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