Eintracht is more than football, more than its football fans, more than professional sport. Eintracht, says its president Mathias Beck, is a family. And, if you listen to the words of some of the club’s volunteers, you might add, a strong family that provides a lot of support for its younger members.
Small members are the sports that often barely manage to escape from the shadow of football. The fencers, for example, who have one of the greatest talents in Çağla Aytekin and one of the best coaching teams in the republic in Viktor Zent and Magdalena Jeziorowska, or the wrestlers, who were able to put together a team for the league competition for the first time ever last year.
It is these disciplines, often popularly referred to as fringe sports, that are assigned their place in the sporting world through the presence of well-known factors: less attention, less money, poorer equipment, fewer young talent.
140,000 club members
The fact that the little ones live in the big house of the Eintracht family – which includes more than 140,000 club members – is an advantage for at least three of these four criteria. The wrestlers, for example, according to their department head Lutz Hahn, benefit greatly from the organized structure of the club.
The discipline, one of the oldest Olympic sports, has only been represented in the club for around ten years. The wrestlers from the traditional AC Frankfurt Eckenheim club essentially moved to Eintracht, says Hahn, who wrestled there himself. The fact that this happened was mainly due to a legal dispute.
In January 2010, the club renamed itself “AC Eintracht Frankfurt aMeV” after a general meeting and was then sued by the “real” Eintracht. The Frankfurt District Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff. Shortly afterwards, the wrestlers switched to Eintracht.
Hahn does his job at Eintracht on a voluntary basis. This means that he needs an environment that allows him to concentrate primarily on sport. “Today at Eintracht and before at Eckenheim, there is simply no comparison,” he says. Today he has a “huge backup with the office when it comes to all the organization and administration.” Other departments, such as marketing, are also involved. “We can just focus on sport and don’t have to deal with any club bureaucracy,” says Hahn.
There are many offers under the umbrella of Eintracht Frankfurt.Michael Braunschädel
He sees a basic philosophy of the club that also benefits wrestling: from the grassroots to the top. His division only registered a team in league operations for the first time last year. They are currently in the lowest league, the association league, but want to move up quickly. His protégés can already train up to five times a week, and the geographical proximity to the Olympic training center in Aschaffenburg also helps, says Hahn. The first of his boys are already training there in the state squad.
Not only fencing has become professionalized
The new resources also led to increasing membership numbers. There was a real boom in wrestling, especially after the pandemic, says Hahn.
“The halls are packed. We now have 50 adults and 30 kids in training, of which around 20 also go to competitions.” Due to the increasing popularity of mixed martial arts, many young people are interested in the sport. In Eastern European countries, wrestling is a popular sport, which is why a particularly large number of young people with a migrant background come to train.
Other sports are also doing better under the Eintracht roof than before. The fencers, for example, says Elke Jonas, sports director of the fencing department at Eintracht. With the support of the large club, fencing in Frankfurt has become much more professional, the equipment is better, which in turn attracts more well-known coaches.
The fencers also feel at home at Eintracht.Michael Braunschädel
When the former world-class fencer Magdalena Jezirowska, who herself has fenced in European and World Championships, wanted to come to Germany from Poland as a coach, she decided to go to the city on the Main despite many offers. Eintracht is now one of the best clubs in Germany, especially when it comes to young players, says Jonas. “We do really good departmental work here.”
It was only in 2017 that the fencers from the university fencing club, who had become homeless, came to Eintracht. “And we got so much support straight away,” says Jonas. Like Hahn, she reports that she can concentrate fully on the sport. This starts with the financial side. Two full-time trainers are not a given in fencing.
This also reflects Eintracht’s ambition to be among the best in elite sport. Membership and bureaucracy are handled by the office. Eintracht’s buses are also a great advantage, as they can be used for tournaments in Austria, France or Hungary. For smaller fencing clubs, such trips to tournaments abroad are simply not feasible.
There is also hall capacity for training. Until now, the sessions have taken place in the sports hall of the Lessinggymnasium. Until recently, a maximum of 14 fencers could train in the gymnasium, and up to 30 at the same time in the large hall. The new location in Nied, which Eintracht renovated for around two million euros, is changing a lot here.
The fencers recently got their own hall there, with permanently installed fencing piste. They can also use the hall whenever they need it and don’t have to coordinate with other sports. “Now we just have to plan how best to use the hall,” says Jonas. This is another “giant step” for the fringe sport of fencing. It’s no wonder that Elke Jonas is particularly hopeful about the future.
