Around the European Championship, the discussion about the financial situation in women’s football flares up once again. Lina Magull sees the Spanish league as a role model and would also like to see a kind of minimum wage for Germany. This is essential for professionalization.
Lina Magull looks enviously at Spain. The opponents of the German national team in the second European Championship group game on Tuesday (9 p.m. / ARD, DAZN and in the live ticker on ntv.de) have long fought for what Magull and her colleagues in this country are fighting in vain: more money – for everyone! “We should earn so well from the 2nd league that nobody has to work part-time anymore,” Magull demanded in the “Bild” newspaper: “We’re talking about a minimum salary of 2,000, 3,000 euros a month. That’s how you can do it Promote sustainable development in women’s football.”
In the Spanish Liga Primera Iberdrola, the desire for a salary that women can live on is a reality. After more than a year of negotiations and a strike, a collective agreement was reached at the end of 2019 that guarantees a minimum salary of 16,000 euros per year including maternity leave. Not quite the amount Magull envisioned, but a “historic” agreement, as David Aganzo, president of the players’ union, said of the win for “dignity, equality and justice”.
Previously, 49 percent of female soccer players received no salary at all, 31 percent received less than 500 euros a month. Is the agreement a role model for the Bundesliga? Yes, says Martina Voss-Tecklenburg. For the national coach, a minimum salary based on the Spanish model would be “important, because not all players are professionals”. She “doesn’t need 10 or 20 million euros a year,” said Magull, but “our salaries should rise so that everyone – not just the national players – can practice their sport professionally.” The demand fits the global call for “equal pay”, which had also become loud in the discussion about the unequal EM bonuses.
Top players can make a good living from football. The injured Dzsenifer Marozsan, for example, is said to earn 350,000 euros a year at Champions League winners Olympique Lyon, while Australian Sam Kerr from Chelsea FC is the top earner worldwide with 500,000 euros. For comparison: The male superstars of the Premier League also get this much – per week.
The women would also be paid on the island like professionals, otherwise the clubs would not get a license, Magull reported: “I don’t know why that doesn’t work in Germany.” Her DFB colleague Laura Freigang already said: “Where should the money come from?” She asked in “Playboy”: You “can’t get any money paid out that we don’t bring in”.
According to the “Season Report 2020/21”, the twelve Bundesliga clubs together earned 15 million euros – a maximum. “Personnel expenses for match operations” amounted to 1.35 million euros – an increase of 113 percent compared to 2011/12. “The development shows,” said DFB managing director Manuel Hartmann, “that professionalization is progressing.” DFB Vice-President Sabine Mammitzsch knows that she’s still a long way from reaching her goal. She wants to “develop the market in such a way that higher salaries can also be paid”. Lina Magull likes this.
