Women’s Football: Women in Football: The Long Road to Equality

Times change so quickly in football. Last week we saw Jule Brand dancing so crazy in the dressing room at the Abe Lenstra Stadium in Heerenveen after the German national team’s successful Olympic qualification against the Netherlands that her teammates screamed a little louder. Well, on Tuesday evening, the VfL Wolfsburg winger was hugged by her teammates Alexandra Popp and Svenja Huth as if the 21-year-old had almost single-handedly decided the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup with a 3-0 win in Hoffenheim. She had only initiated the 48th victory (!) in a row for the Wolfsburg women in this competition.

“I can’t remember the last time I scored a header,” said Brand, who refrained from making any gestures of celebration out of consideration for her training club. And she also didn’t deny that the trust from the national team that national coach Horst Hrubesch conveyed – she came on as a substitute in the Nations League semi-final against France and played through in the decider against the Netherlands – had helped her. »That gave me self-confidence.«

Just a few months ago, the brand, who was named the “Golden Girl” in 2022 as the best U21 player in Europe, was seen as a good example of how a top talent goes astray. After she was one of the weakest German players at the disastrous 2023 World Cup in Australia because she ignored tactical instructions and repeatedly made wrong decisions, Wolfsburg’s sports director Ralf Kellermann sent a clear wake-up call in the fall: “She has no consistency in her game achievements, always indicates their potential. If Jule wants to become a top player, she has to work hard on herself and live 100 percent for football.” Given everything that’s coming at her, it’s not that easy: “We’re helping Jule as best we can, but we can’t help those around her influence.”

Brand hasn’t forgotten the reprimand – the issue has been clarified, she now assures: “I just want to put my performance on the pitch.” Her club is aiming for its tenth cup win in a row, and Wolfsburg will face league rivals in the semi-finals at the end of the month SGS Essen, who beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 on Tuesday. In the second semi-final, FC Bayern has home advantage after winning 3-0 at Carl-Zeiss Jena against Eintracht from Frankfurt, who won 4-1 against MSV Duisburg.

A final with the top teams from Wolfsburg and Munich could once again ensure a sold-out stadium at the final in Cologne on Ascension Day on May 9th. That was always the goal at the German Football Association (DFB) when, before the 2011 home World Cup, the women’s final was finally withdrawn from Berlin as an appendage of the men. Nevertheless, the road to greater equality is still a long one. The DFB growth plan states that women’s football is 70 years behind men’s football “in terms of organization, 34 years behind Bundesliga operations and 21 years behind as a live media product.”

On the occasion of International Women’s Day on March 8th, the 15th matchday of the Bundesliga will be shown free of charge on private and public television channels and streaming providers to increase visibility. “A match day for everyone” is the motto – for example, the top game between Frankfurt and champions Munich on Saturday will also be broadcast live on Hessischer Rundfunk and on sportschau.de. 1. FC Cologne will also be moving to the large stadium against Werder Bremen on Sunday: more than 20,000 tickets have already been sold. After 38,365 fans set a new record for the league against Frankfurt a year ago, Werder Bremen’s season record from the first half of the season against Cologne is now set to be broken with 21,508 spectators in the Weserstadion.

Such highlight games help to broaden the base. The average attendance in the Bundesliga is currently just under 2,700 visitors – almost three times as many as before the 2022 European Championship. Turning on the lights for the league is important and right. But the biggest driving force remains the national team, which last week brought an incredible audience of 5.59 million television viewers to the screens on ZDF. A men’s international match no longer has a much larger TV audience.

Since Tuesday, the German women’s opponents in the European Championship qualifiers, Austria, Iceland and Poland, have been decided, which will be played in a new format in the Nations League league system. The first and second place in each group will qualify directly for the 2025 finals in Switzerland. “We can be very happy with the lots,” said Hrubesch, who is looking forward to interesting games “that will also help us in preparation for the Olympic football tournament.”

Although he wants to add “one or two young players,” he will “for the most part rely on the squad from the Final Four.” The 72-year-old will still be responsible for all six games. Three double game days are scheduled, the last one from July 10th to 16th is borderline: immediately afterwards the DFB team has to set off for the Olympics. And that means that Jule Brand and her teammates don’t have a real summer break for the second year in a row.