The German Football Association is lagging behind. Should the German women’s team win the European Championship in England, which begins on July 6, each player would receive a bonus of 60,000 euros.

That’s an increase, because at the last European Championship in 2017 it would only have been 37,500 euros. And yet it is comparatively little. The national players around Manuel Neuer would have collected 400,000 euros for a European Championship victory in 2021. Each.

Former international and current DFB director Oliver Bierhoff cited the difference in income and revenue between women’s and men’s tournaments as the reason for the disparity. However, he said, the federation would bring support staffs and equipment to a similar level. The women recently prepared for the European Championship at partner Adidas in Herzogenaurach – just as their male colleagues did a few weeks ago during the Nations League.

The DFB could equalize the wage level between men and women immediately

As the largest national sports federation in the world with multi-million dollar sponsorship deals, the DFB could easily equalize pay levels, but that should be no more than a minimum standard in 2022. Of the 16 nations participating in this Women’s European Championship, eight federations have already aligned bonuses. But this recurring discussion masks the structural disadvantage. Whether it’s training, media attention or leadership positions: For girls and women, only second-class soccer remains.

It wouldn’t do to pump money into the market at the top of the soccer pyramid anyway, a survey by FIFPro suggests. The international professional association had surveyed 3600 top female footballers worldwide in 2017. According to the survey, the average monthly salary was $600. Only one percent received more than 8000 dollars a month. More than three quarters of the players combined their competitive sport with another job or with studies. 90 percent were considering stopping their career early. Because of a lack of prospects.

Corona further complicated everyday life. Even before the pandemic, the women’s Bundesliga’s attendance average did not exceed 1000. During the Covid restrictions, ticket revenue plummeted. A number of sponsors reduced their spending. Clubs that focus on women’s soccer suffered as a result.

One example is 1st FFC Turbine Potsdam, which won the German championship six times and the Champions League twice at the beginning of the millennium. On the outskirts of the sports metropolis of Berlin, Turbine relies on small and medium-sized sponsors, health insurance companies, energy producers, the real estate industry. Thus, the club has an annual budget of one million euros, with three employees in the office.

Turbine Potsdam has not won a championship since 2012. Since then, VfL Wolfsburg and FC Bayern Munich have settled the titles among themselves. In other European countries, too, clubs that are successful in men’s soccer dominate the women’s premier league.

Beyond the big dates, there is hardly any attention for women’s soccer

In England it’s Chelsea FC, in Spain FC Barcelona, in France Olympique Lyon. In Germany, seven-time women’s Bundesliga champion 1. FFC Frankfurt joined Eintracht Frankfurt two years ago. Turbine Potsdam cooperates with Hertha BSC in Berlin, but a merger is not yet in sight.

In Germany, the DFB has long rested on its successes. The women’s national team won the World Cup twice and the European Championship eight times. As hosts of the 2011 World Cup, they enjoyed substantial television ratings and sponsorship revenue. But between major tournaments, attention remained low. The nonprofit DFB couldn’t bring itself to spin off the women’s national league into its own organization. This is the case with the men’s league, where the German Soccer League (DFL) has established itself as a self-confident representative body.

In England, professional women soccer players must be able to make a living from their sport

There is little room in the sports industry beyond men’s soccer, as handball, athletics or other Olympic sports are feeling. Building a lucrative brand against this competition requires patience, money and a larger staff. The English Football Association FA has been marketing its women’s league as the “Women’s Super League” since 2010, in close partnership with a British bank.

According to media reports, the English league receives around 17 million euros annually from the marketing of TV rights. Women soccer players, the rule in England goes, must be able to make a living from their sport. The situation is similar in Spain, where the big clubs are increasingly promoting their women’s teams on their social media. The spectator average is far below that of the men, but time and again campaigns lead to world records. In April, almost 92,000 people watched FC Barcelona’s home match against VfL Wolfsburg in the Women’s Champions League.

Such records could have existed a long time ago. Already at the beginning of the 20th century, soccer was popular among many women. Competitions were created in France, Germany or Poland. In England, every larger community had its own women’s team. In 1920, 53,000 spectators watched a match in Liverpool. However, the English Football Association was concerned that attention to men’s games would diminish, so it banned women’s games in 1921.

The DFB did the same in 1955. Women continued to play soccer, but they were not welcome back in the major league system until the 1970s. More decades would pass before the major associations developed a serious interest in women’s soccer.

And even in the present, some respond only to public pressure. Top clubs like Borussia Dortmund and FC Schalke 04 have only recently established a department for girls and women. It will take a long time for their teams to advance from the lowest division through all the leagues to the European top. Other clubs, such as VfB Stuttgart and Mainz 05, are forming partnerships with successful women’s clubs in their regions. Still others, like Hertha BSC, are holding back. This is in contrast to 1. FC Union, which was one of the first clubs in the GDR to have a women’s department. However, Union is not one of the showcase clubs for girls and women.

Promotion of women as a condition for a Bundesliga license?

In men’s soccer, which is worth billions, the German Soccer League could make the promotion of women a condition for a Bundesliga license. Youth centers, partnerships with schools or marketing departments could increase their focus on women. But that is not enough. According to the anti-discrimination network Fare, less than four percent of management positions in European soccer are held by women. On the DFB presidium, five of 15 members are female. There is one woman on the DFL executive committee: Donata Hopfen, who recently became managing director.

Beyond federations and clubs, sponsors, sporting goods manufacturers or soccer media are also generally dominated by men. According to the Cologne Sports University, women appear in only 15 percent of sports coverage. Numerous advertising campaigns for women’s soccer have also been geared – consciously or unconsciously – toward a heterosexual male audience.

For the domestic Women’s World Cup in 2011, the slogan was “20elf from its most beautiful side.” A toy manufacturer launched a soccer Barbie. For a cosmetics company, female players posed in tight evening dresses, supplemented with Internet tips for makeup and hair care. And time and again, female soccer players have their pictures taken in Playboy. Apparently, some of them have the impression that this is the only way they can attract the interest of sponsors.

In encrusted networks, men make the decisions

This reproduction of outdated gender images may be one of many reasons why women are less involved in soccer. At the grassroots level, it is true that before the pandemic, more women had applied for a C license as a coach, the lowest category in children’s and youth soccer. But already one level higher, at the threshold of competitive sports, the female share drops enormously. This is not due to a lack of willingness on the part of women, but to encrusted networks in which men make the decisions for advanced training, match schedules and referee appointments.

Even further up the field, former national players are rarely willing to spend their annual leave on advanced training for coaches lasting several weeks. Even in the women’s Bundesliga, teams are usually coached by men. With a few exceptions. Former Bundesliga player Carmen Roth took over as coach of Werder Bremen’s women’s team in 2017. Two years later, she quit at her own request and resumed her permanent job with an insurance company. So girls at grassroots level are losing visible role models. Most recently, the DFB has been raving about growth: of its 7.17 million members, 2.2 million are active on the pitch – but only 187,000 of them are female players.

In Denmark, female soccer players strike for better pay

The DFB and the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) have developed a number of support projects and management seminars for women. However, at least the DFB is still resisting a mandatory quota for women on its boards. Unlike the soccer association in Norway, which had already introduced such a quota in the 1990s. There, at least two women are to be members of the executive committee so that one alone does not feel like an alibi. Half of the board has long been made up of women, and since March it has been headed by former national player Lise Klaveness.

Germany is a long way from such conditions. But beyond the DFB structures, things are moving faster. A network led by former Hamburg soccer official Katja Kraus is demanding reforms from the associations. The traveling exhibition “Fan.Tastic Females” presents female Ultras. And the “F_in” alliance, Women in Football, provides information about sexism in the fan stands.

However, these initiatives are supported by few prominent voices, and even the German national players keep a low profile. It’s quite different in Denmark, where female players went on strike for better pay in 2017. Or in the USA, where the world champions around Megan Rapinoe sued their association for “financial discrimination”. Thanks in part to their involvement, 16 million euros in prize money will now be distributed at the Women’s European Championship, twice as much as at the 2017 European Championship. At last year’s Men’s European Championship, the figure was 331 million.