Dusseldorf You’ve watched long enough, now you’re taking action: A prominent coalition around the former German national soccer player and two-time world champion Ariane Hingst wants to change German sport, especially German soccer. Together with five other top women in German business, Hingst took over and founded the women’s team of the Berlin club FC Viktoria 1889 Berlin. “We are certain that the time is now ripe for women in football,” said Hingst, who was born in Berlin.
The aim is to bring the team, which has so far played in the regional league and finished the 2021/22 season in fourth place, via the second into the first Bundesliga within five years. This should succeed with the new, already committed sports director Henner Janzen, a new coach and new players. The investors are not only concerned with the sporting and economic success of this team. They also want to ensure that women’s sport, especially women’s football as Germany’s number one sport, is perceived and valued more widely and that there is more equality in this segment, for example in terms of salary.
“Women’s football has to get out of the pity corner. The FC Viktoria Berlin women’s team is an economic project with a socio-political mission. We want to achieve promotion with the club and thus increase the recognition of women’s football in particular and women’s sport in general,” says Verena Pausder, entrepreneur and founder. And further: “But Viktoria is not just a financial investment. We founders and shareholders will not sell if the team has made it into the first division. We will support and carry this project in the long term.”
In addition to Hingst and Pausder, the founding team includes other sporting and economic giants such as the CEO of Vattenfall Wärme Berlin AG Tanja Wielgoß, the former TV presenter and (sports) journalist Felicia Mutterer, the co-founder and managing director of BRLO Craft Beer Katharina Kurz and the marketing expert Lisa Währer . While the first five volunteers, Währeer will take over the management of the company full-time. The club FC Viktoria 1889 Berlin holds the majority of the voting rights due to the German 50-plus-1 rule.
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Nikutta, Allmendinger and Zypries as ambassadors
In addition, other well-known investors such as the former German soccer goalkeeper and official Katja Kraus, the former swimmer and multiple Olympic winner Franziska van Almsick and the entrepreneur Lea-Sophie Cramer are also there as supporters. Deutsche Bahn board member Sigrid Nikutta, sociologist and president of the Berlin Social Science Center Jutta Allmendinger and former Federal Minister of Justice Brigitte Zypries are also on board as ambassadors. Together they now want to recruit more supporters and sponsors. Men are also welcome.
“With our commitment, we want to crack the last male bastion, German professional football, which has so far been a male-only circus,” says top manager Tanja Wielgoß. It cannot and must not be the case that female professional footballers receive a salary that is many times lower than that of their male colleagues. “We also want to promote equality in sport. Apparently, as in business, we cannot leave that to the market. We’ve made it when there’s a club like Viktoria in every German city.”
The idea for the initiative came up during the 2019 Women’s World Cup. At that time, the co-founder and managing director of the BRLO brewery Katharina Kurz organized a public viewing in her beer garden at the Gleisdreieck in Berlin. The rush encouraged her and the journalist Felicia Mutterer to get involved in women’s football fundamentally and economically.
The takeover also arouses interest in politics. Berlin’s Mayor Franziska Giffey explained: “In the public eye, top-flight football is still often dominated by men. So I support the idea of making football more female in our capital and across the country. I wish the initiators and the team every success for the project.”
There are many reasons for the unequal treatment of women in football: from significantly less media presence to the lower salaries of female athletes to meager sponsorship income. According to Statista, only around seven percent of sponsorship money worldwide goes into sports with women.
US club Angel City FC as a role model
Angel City FC is a role model for the German women’s club. The Los Angeles women’s soccer club was founded in 2020 and started playing in 2022. The team has many high-profile owners, including tennis star Serena Williams, actresses Natalie Portman and Eva Longoria, and some investment luminaries. And from the summer, a top German soccer player will also play: The goalkeeper of the German women’s national team, Almuth Schult, will switch from VfL Wolfsburg to Angel City FC.
The commitment of the German women comes at the right time. The European Women’s Soccer Championship starts in England on Wednesday. And according to UEFA’s women’s football strategy, women’s football has the greatest growth potential in the football market. The number of women’s and girls’ teams has doubled in the last 15 years. The most recent season of the Women’s Champions League broke the world record with almost 100,000 spectators. Internationally, corporations such as the British Barclays Bank and the beverage and food company Pepsico are already investing millions in girls’ and women’s football.
With the new sports director Henner Janzen, the founders have secured an experienced player. The 55-year-old lawyer has been a freelance, international players’ consultant for many years and has focused on women’s football for 20 years. And with Verena Pausder, an entrepreneur is actually part of the founding team. Due to her numerous ideas, impulses and her commitment, she is now one of the best-known faces of the German start-up scene and has been socio-politically active for a long time.
More: Angel City FC – the football club with a special mission