Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen - While the German Football Association has slid deeper into the crisis in the past few weeks and President Fritz Keller absolutely refused to leave his post, the sports journalist Gaby Papenburg launched the “Football can do more” initiative.
Together with eight well-known fellow campaigners, such as the soccer referee Bibiana Steinhaus-Webb or the former national goalkeeper Katja Kraus, the initiative calls for equality and more women in professional football.
The position paper contains three central points: a quota of at least 30 percent women in management positions by 2024;
Salary transparency, i.e. equal pay for the same jobs and better framework conditions and funding programs for more equal opportunities.
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Sandra Ott, FSV Höhenrain
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More female power in the management ranks of German football and an end to the ailing men's economy.
“Women simply do not appear.
Over 90 percent of the management positions in football as a work area are men.
It's time to change that.
And it doesn't work without a quota, ”claims Papenburg.
But how do you see the reform efforts at the grassroots level?
The tenor of the female soccer players in the district: Equal rights and equal pay are a matter of course, because in the former male domain, the female soccer players have long been involved at a high level.
A fixed quota for women could be a start to break up the encrusted structures, but would have to go hand in hand with a corresponding qualification of the female candidates.
Frankfurt's women get Germany's first triple
"With such demands until I split up," admits Marina Siegl from BCF Wolf-ratshausen.
The midfielder and interim captain at the national division is “not at all a fan of quotas.
Women have to perform just as much as men, regardless of whether in sport or in business. ”However, according to Siegl, a fixed proportion of women can make sense.
"If women don't get into such long-established positions at all, you can definitely think about a quota."
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Marina Siegl, BCF Wolfratshausen
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Sandra Ott, trainer and player at the regional top division club FSV Höhenrain, sees a need for action - but least of all with the quota. “That is at most a starting point, but I am not a friend of such fixed regulations.” Much more important are content-related topics for Ott: “The best concept should prevail, no matter who presents it.” And external support. If you want to be at the top of the DFB, you definitely have to "have the regional associations behind you".
A DFB President?
In April 2019, Ute Groth, chairwoman of DJK 06 Düsseldorf and representative of amateur sports in the DFB, applied for the highest office in German football.
With Fritz Keller, an “old, white man” - as this species has recently been pejoratively called in political discourse - was given preference.
It is not only women who are welcomed by a top female talent at the Football Association.
"I would support that immediately," say Sepp Huber and Hans Adlwarth in unison, trainers of the women's teams at SF Bichl and SG Bad Tölz / Wackersberg.
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Veronika Müller, SG Bad Tölz / Wackersberg
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The Tölzer SG captain Veronika Müller is also the trainer of the Tölzer G youth.
“I have 15 boys on the team and three girls, and they are respected,” says the 29-year-old.
"Equality in football is a development that is due, and it has been going in the right direction for some time," observed Müller.
She has nothing to do with quotas, the construct just has to fit.
Even if women catch up in professional football, there will always be differences somewhere: "A striker will never earn as much as a Lewandowski."
It is high time that more women work on the DFB Presidium. "
Sabine Ebnicher, SG Lenggries / Gaißach
"Someone who cleans up all this mess," says Monika Zinsmeister.
The youth leader at SV Sachsenkam kicked herself in the 90s.
“At that time we were laughed at.
That is no longer the case with our women's team today.
Much has changed for the better in the meantime, ”says Zinsmeister.
As a praiseworthy example, she cites the German Ski Association.
"Men and women are on the same level in terms of professionalism and appreciation."
Only one woman in the 17-member DFB Presidium
Sabine Ebnicher acknowledges the hiccup at the top of the DFB with a shake of her head.
The 24-year-old from Lenggries has traveled a lot and knows her way around German football: From FFC Wacker, she went to a college team in Hattiesburg / Mississippi, then back to the Isarwinkel to SG Lenggries / Gaißach.
Because of her studies, Ebnicher currently has the right to play a second game with the state division club Grün-Weiß Deggendorf.
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Katrin Specker, SF BIchl
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"Everyone is talking about the FC Bayern triple, and the Frankfurt women won their first triple for German football long before that," says the midfielder. A look at the football annals clears up: The FFC girls have already been celebrated twice for their triple triumphs at the Frankfurt Römer (2002 and 2008) before the FCB stars presented the championship trophy, cup and handle pot from the Munich city hall balcony in 2013. If you scroll through the Presidium on the DFB homepage, you will come across only one woman in the 17-strong committee: Hannelore Ratzeburg, Vice President for Equality, Women's and Girls' Football. "It is time for more women to work on the Presidium," demands Ebnicher, "as well as generally at all football levels."
A binding quota until 2024 - that would be “a good thing” for Monika Stöger, captain at TSV Königsdorf, at least a house number.
"How it would be if you also take it up below in the amateur area," muses Stöger, and believes: "It would certainly bring more appreciation to women's football."
Katrin Specker, captain of the SF Bichl, would like to see the women entrusted with more responsibility.
Her credo: "Women play football well, why shouldn't they be able to assert themselves well in management positions." Her favorite for the office of DFB President would be the former German national goalkeeper and European champion Katja Kraus.
“She has been through a lot and has an idea of the subject.
Maybe it could lead the DFB out of the crisis. "
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