football
Women’s Bundesliga: GmbH collapsed with DFB
The DFB and the 14 Bundesliga clubs simply cannot come together when it comes to the future of women’s football. The clubs go their own way.
According to the clubs, the originally planned GmbH between the new league association Frauen-Bundesliga FBL and the German Football Association has collapsed for the time being. The 14 first division clubs announced this after their first general meeting in Frankfurt/Main. It was said that the positions and framework conditions of the DFB could not be met.
The DFB regretted the league association’s decision, but there was still a willingness to talk about the further professionalization of the women’s Bundesliga. “We want to make progress on the matter and are still interested in good solutions. This is only necessary for the ongoing international development of women’s football,” it said.
DFB stands by 100 million investment
The association will initially continue to ambitiously run the Bundesliga under its umbrella: “The DFB also stands by its decision to invest one hundred million euros in the development of women’s and girls’ football in the coming years.”
According to dpa information, the parties did not agree on the question of who was allowed to appoint the management. The DFB had promised just over 100 million euros for the next eight years, but linked this to the right to have a say. Both parties are said to have agreed on many points, but not on the essential ones.
The future “must lie with the clubs”
“It is crucial for us: the future of the women’s Bundesliga must be shaped where the sporting and economic engine lies – with the clubs,” said league association president and Eintracht director Katharina Kiel. Where the clubs would want to get the financial resources that the DFB would have guaranteed them from remained unclear.
From July 1st, the joint venture would have been responsible for significantly boosting the league’s core topics such as marketing and promoting young talent.
“As announced, we discussed and examined all avenues with an open mind,” Kiel continued. She thanked DFB President Bernd Neuendorf for his “intensive and solution-oriented negotiation,” and the process clearly identified the central questions and answers.
But Kiel also said: “They (the clubs) bear the greatest investment and implementation responsibility and for this they need clear responsibilities, a high level of ability to act and governance that accelerates growth and increases competitiveness.”
Dispute even before the league association was founded
Before the league association was founded in December, there were severe disagreements between club bosses such as Axel Hellmann (Eintracht Frankfurt) and Jan-Christian Dreesen (FC Bayern Munich) and the association under whose umbrella the women play. The event did not take place on the DFB campus as planned, but in Frankfurt’s stadium.
One of the main points of contention is the majority of votes. In their own FBL GmbH, the clubs would have to conclude a basic contract with the DFB, as it also applies to the men’s German Football League (DFL).
dpa
