When the German national soccer team stood with their heads hanging in the huge, loud circle of Wembley Stadium in summer 2022, they didn't really look like winners. In fact, neither were they. And yet somehow they were.
Disappointment and frustration certainly prevailed in the first place at this moment. About what they had just missed. But at most 24 hours later — after a lively party at the team hotel and a spectacular reception the next day at the Römer in Frankfurt, they all realized that we had won!
Maybe not that one European title.
But in return, respect, and acceptance.
As part of the European championship in July 2022, the topic of “women's soccer” was declared a “top priority” by DFB boss Neuendorf. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz also wanted to personally campaign for the issue of “equal pay.”
Unfortunately not much has changed. Although it is high time.
Why is that so?
While soccer Germany — and especially the German tabloid press — once again feels they have won a big title by the impartial players after a final against the hosts at Wembley Stadium, we should actually complain about something completely different. For decades, we have been killing ourselves every day what we soccer fans crave the most: fair and honest sport, emotional, high-class and inspiring.
We ignore him because he is played by women.
We don't go to the stadium, we don't show the games on TV or only at the most inopportune times and, above all, we only pay for the performance provided with a fraction of what the game played by our male counterparts is worth to us. The latter follows a very simple market economy logic: Remuneration in professional soccer — i.e. the entertainment industry — is based on turnover.
The more people watch, the greater the ticket and TV rights revenue, merchandise revenue, and competition rewards. And the fact that so few people are watching is primarily due to the fact that “women's soccer” is third-rate or fourth-class soccer.
The problem: this logic and these assumptions are fundamentally wrong.
This is not the fringe discipline of a popular sport. But for an equal and essential part of soccer. Of course, you can also differentiate terminologically between women's and men's Bundesliga or European and World Championships.
But equally and on equal footing. Not in a linguistically suggested two-class model.
Would the German women's national team win against the German men's national team? No!
Is that important? No!
In soccer, we have always drawn a gender-specific comparison of performance, which only exists in soccer.
Steffi Graf would probably never have won a tennis match against Boris Becker. Had Magdalena Neuner been in the men's race, she would not have won a single title. Gina Lückenkemper was 0.8 seconds (7.85%) slower at her European championship gold medal in Munich over 100m than Lucas Ansah-Peprah, who was eliminated in the semi-finals as the fastest German.
Why do we draw a comparison in soccer that is unique in sport?
Physical and athletic differences between men and women are a biological fact. But only in soccer do they seem to be relevant for judging and rewarding performance.
From our point of view, this also sums up very well that Statement from our brand ambassador Lina Magull together.
That does not mean that, apart from the athletic differences, women's soccer has always been on equal footing with men's soccer. Tactical and technical deficiencies were obvious for a long time.
Why Weil Women were not allowed to play soccer at all until 1970. 100 years behind schedule is simply not so easy to catch up. Especially not in width. But instead of trying to work through and compensate for this historical injustice with all our might, we use the inequality that has arisen from it as a means of self-strengthening.
It is not about making amends at this point. But it is a matter of taking note of this historical fact and taking it into account in an assessment of the conflict situation.
Unfortunately, performance levels aren't the only area that has been compromised in the past. Such a ban — especially when it enjoys social acceptance — also results in a complete deprivation of public attention and appreciation.
Perhaps this European Championship was not only the long-needed impetus to recognize the sporting excellence of the players, but also to recognize them accordingly. Going to the stadium for a women's Bundesliga game can be at least as much fun as in the men's Bundesliga. (A little insider tip: the beer tastes the same. We've tried it out.)
And they are also welcome to be shown on TV. By the way, ratings are also a habit and an opportunity. If you can watch more women's soccer, you'll end up watching more of it. Anyone who only ever offers men's soccer is only interested in it. Or in other words: Media are not only geared to the market, they also construct it.
Which brings us back to the topic of money...
Equal pay. Currently, one of Germany's most prominent distributive and monetary debates. After the gas levy and the new DAZN prices.
The exciting thing about Equal Pay is that its complexity is often deliberately ignored or simply forgotten. Equal pay is not the same as equal pay. In particular, we must differentiate between club and national team soccer, as well as basic salary and successful bonuses.
Club soccer is actually subject to the laws of the market.
The vast majority of professional soccer departments have therefore now also been spun off from the main clubs. Although equal salaries would be theoretically possible, they are in fact — as of now — utopian.
The national teams are different.
They are the DFB Subordinate, legally and according to the statutes, a non-profit association with the following task enshrined in the statutes: “The purpose of the DFB is to promote sport. This statutory purpose is achieved in particular by teaching values in and through soccer sports, with particular attention to the realisation of equal rights between men and women” and “appropriate support for socio-political aspects with the opportunities offered by soccer.”
That is what Equal Pay is currently about.
The women's national team plays the same major tournaments as the men's national team. In doing so, she certainly represents soccer Germany better, being at least as successful and significantly less theatrically. The DFB justifies the unequal bonuses (6:1 ratio) with the proceeds and bonuses received from UEFA and FIFA.
A distribution model that is based on distributed funds from associations that sell World Championships to Russia and Qatar should perhaps simply be reconsidered at this point. When looking for new guidelines for action, it sometimes helps to take a look at your own statutes.
At the moment, however, it is about more than just money. It involves more than 23 female soccer players and the conversion of five-digit to six-figure bonus payments. It is about the message that we are sending and the standard that we are setting. Because this debate is not a sport-specific envy debate; it has long had a social dimension.
It stands for the continuing structural disadvantage of women and for the sad truth that equal performance is not always rewarded in the same way.
At this point, our capitalist understanding of meritocracy is contradictory. And that is exactly when politics and/or civil society must intervene.
The DFB, as a very relevant part of this civil society — its relevance is over seven million members — has a responsibility here (s). This responsibility is also an opportunity: not to further intensify or at least manifest historically constructed inequality, but to actively oppose it. Only when we no longer bow to market economy laws, but redefine them in our own way, do we have a chance of equality. At this point, some might want to say that it's just about sport.
But this isn't just about sport.
For many, sport, and soccer in particular, are an essential part of our social interaction. Social decisions in soccer are significant and he undoubtedly serves as a prominent role model.
That is why we also believe that we can influence social coexistence through sport. It would be contrary to our understanding of social responsibility to see ourselves only as a sports science service provider.
Regardless of whether we, the DFB or any other player in sport.
The sooner we understand that we too have a role model function, that it is in our power to initiate social change and to construct equality, the sooner we reap the fruits of our work. For some of us, that is justice. For commercial players in sports, it is an opportunity to sustainably develop a future market.
For us, the privilege of being able to contribute to this change is a matter of course.
It is the chance to stop confronting our children with the fact that they have unequal opportunities in life and on the job market from birth, but to be able to explain to them that their equality is their birthright.
It is an opportunity to break out of the vicious circle of self-reinforcing injustice, in which we understand existing inequality as a legitimation for its continuation, and to construct an angelic circle of self-reinforcing claim to equality.
Be fearless. Be focused. B42
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