Zingler accuses professional football of hypocrisy regarding women's football

Role Models from England and Spain

Zingler also cited FC Barcelona as an example. The club has been investing specifically in its women's team for about ten years. In 2022, Barcelona's women's team set a world record for women's football matches in the Champions League semi-final against VfL Wolfsburg, with over 91,000 spectators at the Camp Nou.

At Union Berlin, the attitude that professional women's football must first be self-sustaining is not shared. The players receive professional contracts and "corresponding salaries," as Zingler put it at the time. The club had consciously taken the step towards professionalization in previous years.

Union's Own Path to Professionalization

Zingler also admitted that he himself has undergone a learning process. About a year ago, in an interview with the Tagesspiegel, he acknowledged that he had to tear down "mental doors" regarding women's football. In the Bild interview, he now said: "Which men's football club was self-sustaining from the start?"

The Union president sees a broad discrepancy between commitments and actions in the industry. "I am complaining about hypocrisy. When the lights go out again, too many continue as before," he criticized. For him, women's football is "not its own ecosystem."

Criticism of Media Coverage and Association Policy

Zingler also specifically addressed media coverage. He mentioned football magazines where out of 96 pages, only a single page is dedicated to women's football. "With the boys, everyone tries it because they might become millionaires," he said, referring to the coverage of men's careers. His question: "But which parents bring their daughter to football when you don't even get a normal salary in many places?"

Zingler demanded more consistency from clubs and associations. "Everyone can do it that way, but then they should stop talking about equal rights," he said. Those who demand equal rights must also structurally secure them – through contracts, salaries, and attention.

One Coach, One Female Coach, One Table

At Union Berlin, everyday life is already concrete: "I am already looking forward to seeing our coach Mauro Lustrinelli and our female coach Marie-Louise Eta eating together at one table at noon and discussing football," said Zingler. The image of two male coaches and one female coach exchanging ideas at eye level is, for him, a sign of the lived change in the club.

With his statements, Zingler joins a line of officials who are calling for German professional football to engage more clearly in women's football. The reaction from other clubs and the DFB remains to be seen; the debate about professionalization, pay, and visibility of women's leagues is likely to gain further momentum from the interview.

The case points to a fundamental question: Must women's football be profitable before it is promoted – or conversely, is promotion part of the self-understanding of a professional club? The answer Zingler gives for Union Berlin is clear: professionalism before profit.