Katja Kraus and her initiative “Football can” do more German professional football.
Photo: Imago/Martin Hoffmann
The women’s football is still on everyone’s lips with the European Championship in Switzerland, when the “Football can” (FKM) initiative comes a damper. In her second annual report “Location of the League”, German professional football gets strong criticism: Because the management levels of the 36 clubs from the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga are still firmly in men’s hands. Only six percent of the top management positions are filled with women. “This analysis is not allocation of blame, but football is a result sport,” emphasizes Katja Kraus, co-advisory board chairman of FKM and states: “All the positive conversations and efforts of change of many decision-makers have so far not opened up.”
Everything at the same
Kraus, former national goalkeeper and former board member at Hamburger SV, as managing director of a large sports marketing agency, will not tire of reminding the Bundesliga clubs to set up more diverse at management level. The first survey of the Allbright Foundation, which specializes in diversity, was sobering in the previous year. Now the compositions of top management, control bodies, supervisory boards and the second management levels, the so-called Direct Reports, have been examined again. Nothing has changed that only Schalke 04, St. Pauli, the 1. FC Heidenheim and Werder Bremen have a woman in top management.
The investigation shows that nothing should be changed in the power structure in German professional football. At the new occupation of 19 positions on top level, only one went to a woman: the lawyer Luise Gottberg was elected to the Presidium of FC St. Pauli. And: Only three clubs – Werder Bremen, St. Pauli and Hamburg SV – have anchored clear targets for diversity in their statutes. The Kraus, who lives in Hamburg, has just experienced at Women’s European Championships in Switzerland what opportunities offer a greater mix. The pleasant atmosphere during the tournament alone was closely linked to a high proportion of women.
Too little diversity
The German clubs deliver another picture in their control committees, where 28 of only 28 are filled with women. In addition to St. Pauli, SC Freiburg, Mainz 05 and second division club Eintracht Braunschweig are progressing here. Every fifth post is filled with a woman at the second management level. There, second division team SV Elversberg is exemplary with a quota of 44 percent. Basically, however, all of this is too little, as Fernando Carro, CEO of Bayer Leverkusen, records: “The women who already work in management positions lead us as a club and me personally every day in front of our eyes how important diversity for our organization and for all society is.” In Carros of earlier professional life in the free economy, it was a matter of course, “and I have never been disappointed. There is still a lot of work to do in football. “
Dorothee Bär, Federal Minister of Research, Technology and Space Travel, thinks similarly: »With six percent women in top management, the Bundesliga clubs perform significantly less than comparable small and medium-sized companies in Germany. My conviction is that every position in football should be the best-not only in the field. ”The CSU politician had already described football as a significant background than politics last year at the” Women in Football Summit “in the DFB Academy.
Jobs in football
In order to meet allegations that not enough women would apply, DFB and the DFL league association started a joint project. “Your job in football”: At the first career fair for women, access for career changers should be facilitated. Clubs and associations will present themselves on September 16 at the DFB campus in Frankfurt am Main, invite you to dialogue formats and networking opportunities.
The fact that something has to be done is also undisputed for Axel Hellmann. The CEO with Eintracht Frankfurt, which is currently touring by the United States, declares the CO-Advisory Board Chairman of the FKM initiative: »We need more women in management positions in football. In men’s and women’s football. However, we will only achieve this if this is carried and promoted in the clubs, by the members and fans. ”The impulse should not be based solely on management.