Women's football in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district is worried about the next generation. SV Uffing is setting a good example.
Landkreis - Clarissa Seidl was known in Uffing as the girl who played football. Her brother Christoph scored the gates for the e-youth. Because she always imitated her big brother, she also started playing football. The trainers can come along. Clarissa Seidl came and, to everyone's surprise, she never left. "I was the first girl," she says today. Women and soccer didn't belong together in Uffing. The story is about 15 years old.
SV Uffing is leading by example
When Seidl tells how she asserted herself against her brother and his friends, Sophie Dinges says, "Now they have the salad." The friends laugh. Meanwhile, Uffing is fighting for his lad area. With syndicates, the SVU fights against the need for players. Neighbors from Seehausen already help in e-youth. The women's department, which also cooperates with Seehausen, faces another, new task. The younger girls in town see the league games of the B and C youth. "They want to play too, come up to us," explains Dinges. Over the winter, Uffing builds the basic structure for a D youth, offers a trial training session on Sundays between 3:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. in the Seehauser Halle. "The new D-youth is a huge opportunity," emphasizes Dinges, who heads the women's division with Seidl and Alexander Burkart. No other club in the district offers training from the U13 to the senior level for girls. "We stand out," says the 26-year-old. Ten years ago, women and their sport were laughed at in Uffing. Long survive this structure, a syndicate with Böbing, anyway, it was said. In the meantime, the women organize a mulled wine stand, take part in men's beer pong tournaments, take on tasks in the club and in return receive "huge support" from department head Klaus Staltmeier.
Edi Koller: "Uffing will remain at some point"
The actually big neighbor from Murnau has long been jealous of the village club and its women's empire. "Uffing will remain at some point," says Edi Koller, coach of the most successful women's team in the region. In second place, the TSV is playing for promotion to the Landesliga. But what should his team do for, Koller asks. For hours away? For defeats against overpowering opponents? And no, certainly not for the future. In five years, Koller estimates, Murnau will come to a point where the meaning of the women's team will be discussed. His soccer players are between the ages of 25 and 30, plan the family, think of children. The coach already sees problems next season. The staff is no longer sufficient for two teams, the reserve should die first. This is how the beginning of a team's demise often looks. Koller sees the current successes as a snapshot, as an exceptional year. "The path goes down." The Murnau soaring probably ends as it began. By merging with Schlehdorf, which had previously experienced the creeping decline, the TSV encouraged its squad. One can only save Murnau with another cooperation. "It won't be otherwise," believes Koller. “Or they run away from us.” The unstoppable cycle that women's football apparently is subject to also affects the TSV.
The only way out is youth work
There is only one way out: youth work. The clubs in Uffing, Farchant and especially Huglfing attract football players. At TSV, people always talked and tried, says Koller. In his opinion, the conditions should not fail. As a major talent producer of the district, the TSV is home to over 500 youth kickers. Rather, Koller laments the lack of recognition in the club. Even after nine years of women's football, not everyone accepts their players. When it comes to youth work, "you fall completely on deaf ears". Koller refers to the handball and basketball players who have been training girls for years and sending them to the start in league operations. "A girl basically wants to try everything." In Forstern, a 3,000-person town, there are over 100 female soccer players. "Everything will be done there." In Murnau as in Oberau "it has been overslept," complains the Ohlstädter.
Markus Schmidt: "Football is no longer as important as it used to be"
Colleague Markus Schmidt from Oberau goes further and identifies a social problem that affects even the male area, albeit less harshly. "Football is no longer as important as it used to be," says the coach. In the summer, the neighboring and friendly TSV Farchant offered trial training for girls. One was there. "Interest is waning." At the same time, significantly more women teams are forming than before. Murnau, Oberau, Uffing, Grainau, Garmisch-Partenkirchen / Farchant, Krün - “too many,” says Schmidt. Women are about having fun with friends, less about the league in which they compete. The cadres of the clubs are correspondingly small. Oberau struggled with a mini cast through the first half of the district league. "If things go on like this, we won't be around in five years," says the coach. Oberau deals with business games for the future. A partnership with 1. FC and Farchant is possible, or a retreat to the Kleinfeld League, where the FCO has started again after the glorious 1990s. As much as the women's division wants a youth team, "we just don't have the girls for it". If you feel like it in the Loisach Valley, kick in Farchant, on the U17. Fritz Dewald has been looking after a youth team there for twelve years - the only one besides the merger of Uffing and Seehausen.
The makers of the Staffelsee are pursuing big plans. Sophie Dinges sees potential to rise from the district league in the next few years. "If everything stays that way," she says. The C-youth, the department's jewel, shoots and dominates their league, leads the table with 58: 3 goals without losing points. "The girls would like to train four times a week." But even in Uffing they know that their construct is fragile. A-levels, studies, children - all of a sudden “everyone is gone,” says Clarissa Seidl. What remains in the end is the hard core for which football has become part of life.
Text: Andreas Mayr