‘We’ve fallen behind’: why Germany’s biggest teams have split from DFB | OneFootball

“The reason we started this whole process was a fear of losing more and more the connection to the top,” says Katharina Kiel, the head of women’s football at Eintracht Frankfurt.

Alongside her role at one of Germany’s more successful women’s football teams, Kiel was this month elected president of the new Women’s Bundesliga Association, after all 14 clubs agreed to split from the German Football Federation (DFB) and form their own committee to take ownership of the league to further commercialise and grow it, with the 2027-28 campaign a targeted start date.

In a model similar to what happened in England with the Women’s Super League a couple of years ago, there are many hurdles to overcome, but Kiel, 33 and a former Bundesliga player, explains what the plan is.

“We started this process two years ago, so it’s been going on a while,” she says. “We managed to touch on certain things, such as our competitiveness internationally, because as you know Germany was a very successful place for women’s football, but there became a point when England in particular stepped up and managed their development really well to grow quickly.

“We also felt there was a reality our players started to look abroad, so there’s a few reasons we started it, but also for the love of the game, and as a woman myself and a former player I have a strong, strong belief in this league and women’s football as it is now.

“We had a decision: to keep up or stay where we are. The Euros in 2022 saw the whole industry in England develop very exponentially and that’s why here we said on the cost side we would see that growth but the revenue streams have not been parallel, and it was not possible to keep up with the costs. We didn’t have our development in our own hands, it was with the DFB, but it is the clubs investing in the sport, which is why our first big step was to unite as clubs.”

Bayern Munich have been pioneers in recent years, winning multiple Bundesliga titles and competing in the latter stages of the Champions League. Bianca Rech, a former Bayern player, has worked at the club for almost a decade in various roles, now as a director, and says commercial growth has been high on the agenda when looking at the WSL as an example.

“We have clear ideas when it comes to the commercial side to make much more money when it comes to sponsorship,” she says. “The other part is the ability to make our own decisions. We are part of the DFB but don’t have any power, so if the DFB want to do something we have to say yes.

“It’s important for us we set some new rules ourselves, around infrastructure, minimum salaries, etc. We did a lot of research and benchmarking against other leagues and we looked at the WSL as a good example of taking charge of itself. We actually worked with an agency in England to help provide examples of how we want it to look.”

Rech, like Kiel, believes Germany missed out on capitalising on past successes, such as back-to-back World Cup wins or their multiple European Championship triumphs. That has meant falling behind England and Spain in recent years, with a disastrous 2023 World Cup ending in a group-stage exit.

Rech says: “We missed out in 2011 to use the power compared to England in 2022, the celebrations, the fan growth, etc … But now with the Euros coming here in 2029, the development of the game, women’s football is one of the fastest-growing products and we have to make sure we don’t lose track.”

Those Euros in 2029 offer a chance to commercialise the sport but Kiel says decisions will not be rushed.

“You have to look at certain timelines and when is a good time to bring change into place?” says Kiel. “Our new media cycle begins in 2027-28, so to bring up change for next season would be very, very late for us now.

“We’ll use next season to get things sorted, but also to form a group and an organisation which is capable of providing commercially and economically for the clubs and for the league. We have started this month with the foundation but we are in the process of getting everything done and creating the criteria every club can commit to for 2027-28.”

On keeping up with the WSL, Kiel says: “We have fallen behind – it is the reality. People try and differentiate between the Bundesliga and Premier League in the men’s game, but the Premier League is so far away. But for us the WSL hasn’t pulled so far away yet.”

There is belief and excitement that this can spark a new era of success in Germany, with many of the country’s biggest clubs either in the Bundesliga or closing in on it, and the national team still developing top young players who can compete on an international stage.

“There’s a huge opportunity in Germany right now,” Rech says. “You look at the league, teams on the way up, Stuttgart, Dortmund, the league will look different, maybe more compatible with the men’s league.”

Kiel says: “Most important is the product you see on the field, and everything around that has to be aligned. We want an attractive game, that’s important for us, and from that we will look at all the consequences that are needed.”

On whether that could include involvement from the DFB, Kiel says: “We cannot not talk with them because they are running the league now, so there are some negotiations on certain topics, and topics regarding future collaboration are still open.”

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Header image: [Photograph: Selim Sudheimer/Getty Images for DFB]