Dhe FFC Frankfurt and Eintracht demonstrated it at the highest level two years ago, and two clubs in Mainz are following a similar path. In a year, an established name will disappear from the map of German women’s football – and a new one will take its place.
Then instead of TSV Schott Mainz, which has had its own department at the start since 2009, FSV Mainz 05 will be in the schedules and tables. And with ambitions to return to the second Bundesliga in the medium term, where the Schott women played from 2015 to 2018. “Later on, the first league can also become an issue,” says 05 sports director Christian Heidel.
“A great thing”
These are goals that the smaller neighbor could no longer tackle on his own, as his manager Till Pleuger admits. “Since the second league became a single track, the DFB has set the course in such a way that almost only professional clubs can play in the Bundesliga,” he says. An amateur club hardly has these opportunities, not even the professionally established largest Rhineland-Palatinate mass sports club.
That’s why the change of the women’s soccer department under the umbrella of the 05ers is not a hostile takeover, emphasizes Christian Heidel, “but it was a wish expressed by both sides. It’s a great thing for us, an area that we haven’t served before. And TSV Schott will be at our side in an advisory capacity and will help to write a new success story if possible.”
“This decision was overdue”
“It’s part of our football club to give girls and women the opportunity to play under our roof,” says 05 chairman Stefan Hofmann. “This decision was long overdue.” When asked why the Bundesliga club is venturing into new territory, Heidel gives a simple answer: “Because we want it.” The topic came up during his first time as manager at Bruchweg, and he I predicted at the time that the development would mean that the women’s Bundesliga teams would be based in professional clubs.
Nevertheless, he was against competing with TSV Schott with his own women’s team. “We probably would have had more staying power,” but respect for the neighbor’s work prohibited such a step. Cooperation talks already existed several years ago, but at some point they came to an end. Until those responsible decided to kiss Sleeping Beauty awake.
Heidel hopes for a signal effect
Giving up your own name is the sour apple that the Schottlers have to bite into before marrying their potent partner. “A syndicate would have been the silver bullet,” says Pleuger – but the DFB statutes do not allow double names at this level. The cooperation, initially planned for five years, will begin as early as next season, which is also reflected in the fact that the main sponsor of 05 will advertise on the jerseys of the Noch-Schott women.
Heidel sees the new model as a signal for local players with higher ambitions. “There is no longer any reason to leave the city and the region to play football,” he says. In fact, it has become difficult in recent years to find talented players who know “that the regional league is the end of the road for us,” Pleuger regrets.
With the know-how of his club, which, for example, produced the international player Laura Freigang, who is now active in Frankfurt, and the financial background of the new home, that should change. Of course, the cooperation must go hand in hand with a higher budget for the team, says Christian Heidel. “That’s self-explanatory if promotion is our goal. We want to help make the team stronger in order to achieve this goal as quickly as possible.”
And what do the players who will swap their blue for red and white jerseys say in the season after next? “We were all very happy when we heard about it,” says Heiðrún Sigurðardóttir, the Icelandic captain of the regional league team. “I feel honored and it’s a big dream, especially for the girls from Mainz.”
