Women’s Bundesliga: Male Influence & Women’s Football

The loser was also in the house when German women’s football celebrated its historic day. But Bernd Neuendorf had nothing to report. The new league association Frauen-Bundesliga FBL eV was founded without the DFB and its president. And so only the three representatives from the clubs sat on the podium in the Eintracht Frankfurt press rooms.

The date was originally supposed to take place not far away, at the DFB campus. The fourteen clubs in the women’s Bundesliga wanted to form a joint company with the association. A good idea to prepare German women’s football for the future.

But both sides failed to cooperate. Last week the conflict escalated when the clubs sharply criticized the DFB and announced that they would form the new FBL e. V. without bringing the DFB into being. On Wednesday they did their thing. It is significant that the new president of the league association, Katharina Kiel, did not speak of the German Football Association, but of the “German Football Association”. That was the name of the GDR association.

By foregoing the DFB, women’s football in Germany is missing out on a chance to become more effective. He makes the same mistake as them Men: The top is breaking away from the base, the elite are doing their own thing. It is quite possible that what was decided on December 10th and celebrated as an important event is more likely to cause damage in the long term.

The DFB didn’t send its best people

In the negotiations, which lasted for years, both sides ultimately failed to fulfill their task. On the one hand, the DFB, which stands for the whole, embodies the greatness of the football nation and is intended to be a socially important institution. In fact, Bernd Neuendorf wanted to make it appear that the topic was a matter for the boss. So his. In October he announced 100 million euros of investment in women’s football.

But he did not negotiate with the clubs himself. He didn’t even send the best people from a strategic point of view into the race, for example the ex-national players Nia Künzer, sports director, and Célia Šašić, vice president. The DFB was represented by Holger Blask, a marketing man who has just been promoted to general secretary, and treasurer Stephan Grunwald.

Neither of them are experts in the matter. Both are men. Neither has a known name. They were also much more vulnerable to attack than Rudi Völler or Andreas Rettig, who have a reputation.

The clubs took advantage of this. They are the professional, capitalist sector of football. They repeatedly emphasized that they do the daily work. They felt that the DFB was treating them from above and feared that it wanted too much power without taking the risk themselves. And let everything fail. But they also left the impression that they were waiting for a welcome opportunity to break up.

Now they have set up a small Super League. A wild league with no connection to international associations. Those involved left it completely open as to how this spin-off would be clarified under sports law. According to the statutes of FIFA and UEFA, the DFB is the contact person for international competitions.

Threatening, scolding, using tactics

It was clear from the clubs’ statements on Wednesday: They overlooked the fact that they are also beneficiaries of the grassroots work and the infrastructure that the DFB at least represents. However, they want the profits alone. Women will probably soon have them, as sport is considered a growth market. This has been observed in England for almost a decade, and now also in Spain. These are the two European countries that have overtaken Germany in terms of sport and economy.

In order to catch up, pooled forces would be important. Neither the new league association nor the DFB are ruling out getting together in the future. But the DFB would now have to do this from the role of the supplicant. Neuendorf is said to have expressed his outrage in the discussion beforehand. According to information from ZEIT, the DFB also threatened the clubs to exclude them from European competitions. The threat alone could be illegal. The DFB left two questions about this unanswered.

Threatening, scolding, using tactics – these are currently the tone used by those in charge when it comes to women’s football. Nobody says a word about training, competition, let alone the volunteer work that is essential in football. Nothing is known about how Neuendorf wants to promote the sport. The FBL executive board members Katharina Kiel, Veronica Saß and Florian Zeutschler also hardly spoke at all about the content at their presentation in Frankfurt.

And those who recently spoke for the clubs, criticized the DFB and made the decisions, held back and stayed in the background: Axel Hellmann, Jan-Christian Dreesen, Fernando Carro. These are the CEOs of Eintracht Frankfurt, Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen. Her achievements in women’s football have so far been limited. All three are men.