A task force consisting of representatives from nine Bundesliga clubs and the DFB is intended to further promote the development of women’s football in Germany. To achieve this, all Bundesliga clubs will cooperate more closely with each other in the future.
The top game of the women’s Bundesliga last weekend between Wolfsburg and Frankfurt went surprisingly well to Eintracht.
IMAGO/Eibner
As the twelve Bundesliga clubs announced on Tuesday, they have committed to more intensive cooperation. Eleven of them founded the “Frauen-Bundesliga Projekt GbR Business Plan”, only VfL Wolfsburg is not on board as part of the company, but only as a cooperation partner – for “internal company reasons”.
“The women’s Bundesliga is facing major challenges both nationally and internationally,” explained Katharina Kiel, technical director for women at Eintracht Frankfurt, giving the example of the increased spending pressure caused by the “strongly growing women’s football market” and the resulting growing dependency from men’s football.
Will you set up your own association?
The goal of the newly founded company is therefore the “conceptual development and orientation of the women’s Bundesliga into a self-sustaining and independent ecosystem,” as the clubs’ press release states. This is the first step towards establishing a separate association in the style of the DFL for men – the women’s Bundesliga is currently still organized under the umbrella of the DFB.
A task force is supposed to drive forward the implementation, which consists of representatives from FC Bayern Munich, VfL Wolfsburg, Eintracht Frankfurt, RB Leipzig, 1. FC Köln, TSG Hoffenheim, SGS Essen, SC Freiburg and SV Werder Bremen and the DFB.
“Step towards an attractive and competitive league”
According to Kiel, in order to build an economically self-sufficient Bundesliga, it is “absolutely necessary to take further steps together with the Bundesliga clubs in league development. The establishment of the task force is a very important step towards an attractive and competitive league and at the same time an expression of this unity among the clubs.”
Bianca Rech, the director of women’s football at FC Bayern, added: “By restructuring the Bundesliga, we want to create the framework conditions for further growth.” The 43-year-old sees the planned realignment as a “prerequisite for German women’s football to remain internationally competitive.”
The task force is supposed to develop its own and independent business plan for the women’s Bundesliga, which will be increased to 14 teams from the 2025/26 season, as well as the measures derived from it. It is not yet known when the first results can be expected.
