Monday 29 March 2021
Vice-President reprimands the association
DFB gives women “very few opportunities”
Hannelore Ratzeburg is the highest-ranking soccer official in the country. In the executive committee of the DFB, however, she is still a lone fighter. It would be good for the decisions in the association to involve more decision-makers. But there is a lack of will and structure for this.
Ten years after the World Cup in Germany, DFB Vice President Hannelore Ratzeburg still sees women as far underrepresented in football. “The DFB has a problem filling positions with women. We need role models, including at the level of officials,” said the 69-year-old from Hamburg on Deutschlandfunk. However, women in the German Football Association also have very few opportunities to advance to the Presidium like them. Only a few posts could currently be filled by women.
Fundamental structural reforms are needed to bring about sustainable change. “And that’s a thick, thick, thick board,” says Ratzeburg. “Then we would have to make changes to the statutes, because we would also have to change the structures for the regional and state associations. And I think I won’t see that anymore.” Ratzeburg demanded: “We should no longer differentiate between men’s and women’s football. Our sport is called football.”
Ratzeburg is worried about the development in the youth sector. The number of girls in membership has decreased by 30,000 over the past ten years. “The big clubs that have several girls’ teams don’t have this problem. We don’t have these slumps in metropolitan areas, but we do in rural areas.”
Ratzeburg is the only woman on the executive committee of the DFB. She does not believe that after her departure from the committee, the interests of women’s football could no longer be represented there at some point: “The fundamentals are secured because so much has happened in society in recent years that the DFB has done it at all can no longer afford not to include the interests of all people playing football in all considerations. ”
Ratzeburg is sure that there is room for improvement beyond the basics: “It brings a lot more to the DFB if more women are included in the decisions. We also see that in the economy, that the companies that are in the top management Are mixed, are more successful. Our goal is to advance the cause of football together. “
.