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Likes to change hair color and fights against discrimination: Megan Rapinoe, world champion with the US kickers. © AFP
Nia Künzer and Bernd Schmelzer talk about the unequal pay of women and men and the chances of winning the World Cup.
Ms. Künzer, Mr. Schmelzer, you chose a very provocative title for your book: “Why women play better football”. Won’t many men turn up their noses first again?
Nia Künzer: Of course we want to trigger a reflex. Then it’s like: ‘And they still lose against an A-youth!’ On the one hand we want to provoke, on the other hand we argue that almost 18 million watched the women’s European Championship final last year – more than at any men’s World Cup game. The EM also convinced a wide audience in terms of sport. Football with fewer interruptions, with less aggression. Add to that the passion, the closeness and an atmosphere in the stadium that is often felt to be more pleasant than the men because it is more relaxed and family-friendly. So there are a number of reasons.
Nia Künzer, 43, rose to fame as the 2003 World Cup golden goal shooter. Even four cruciate ligament tears didn’t get her down. As a long-standing ARD expert, she accompanies the tournament from the NDR studio in Hamburg, heads a department for refugee affairs in Gießen in her main job and is a member of the board of the FR’s Schappekicker campaign. © IMAGO/Sportfoto Zink / Peter Kot
There used to be a huge gap: the women were world and European champions in a row, but after that in the Bundesliga only 150 people strayed onto a village square.
Why did second place at the European Championship trigger so much more than previous tournaments that were more successful in terms of sport?
Bernd Schmelzer: There used to be a huge gap: the women were world and European champions in a row, but after that in the Bundesliga only 150 people strayed onto a village square. Now everything is more professional in the Bundesliga. They simply did a lot of things right, dared to lure people into the stadiums with marketing measures, including going to the men’s arenas in Munich, Wolfsburg and Frankfurt. Real pegs were hammered in there.
What do you think the DFB women are capable of at the World Cup? Isn’t the mission from the third star too daring?
Künzer: It’s looking into a crystal ball. The potential is certainly there, but everything has to fit together. The aim must be to win the group. But if Brazil came in the knockout stages, they would be a brutal opponent. The German team needs a very good day for that. At the European Championship, they managed to react to setbacks again and again. It’s the job of the coaching team to push this team to the limit again during the course of the tournament.
In the case of the men, the socio-political statements, especially before the World Cup in Qatar, made an effort. Women appear more credible. Is it still like that?
Smelter: At the Media Day in Herzogenaurach I asked: Do you prepare such appearances? The women say across the board: No, we don’t want to take away the spontaneity. They talk at a press conference like they would with family, friends or within the team – you get the feeling that it hasn’t been pre-formulated and learned by heart.
Bernd Schmelzer, 57, has been a reporter on women’s football for ARD since 1995 and commented, among other things, on the 2022 European Championship final between England and Germany with an audience of 18 million. He will again report on site at this World Cup. © IMAGO/Ulrich Wagner
Much about women’s football seems authentic, even endearing – but can it retain that in the face of its quest for equal pay?
Smelter: Equal pay is more of a media issue than an internal one. Among the players it is about equalizing their working conditions. It’s about the training opportunities, physiotherapy, infrastructure, the further development of the league and clubs and, since half of the Bundesliga players work part-time, about a basic salary. They know they can’t compare themselves to Cristiano Ronaldo.
Künzer: You should keep the originality and not be turned by the lack of management.
Twenty years ago you received 15,000 euros for winning the World Cup, which the DFB and Deutsche Sporthilfe raised. Now every World Cup player is already waving 28,000 euros through Fifa just for taking part, twice that for the round of 16, more than 250,000 euros for the title.
Künzer: I’m really happy for the players. But I’ll still say – and I also emphasized this when Olaf Scholz demanded equal pay at the European Championship via Twitter – that it can’t be the first premise that 23 national players have a carefree life. And when it comes to Fifa, it should be mentioned that anyone who earns seven billion euros a year can also afford these bonuses.
It used to be very provincial, even in international matches. It happened that the ARD commentator was addressed directly by national coach Silvia Neid during a game from the coaching bench: ‘Don’t be so loud, Bernd, I have to concentrate.’
Smelter: This is my favorite story. And that’s not centuries ago either, just a couple of years and was in a qualifier in Wales for a major tournament. But we were really sitting in a paddock, the platform for us was set up directly above the dugout.
What can the TV audience expect from the World Cup? In the book you write that the budget of the public broadcasters is only a tenth of that of a men’s World Cup.
Smelter: You won’t notice that very much during the broadcasts, and we will have moderation, experts and contributions. There will be no studio on site, there are only a fraction of the staff on the road as at a men’s World Cup, but that is also due to the time difference. The people in Germany are facing short nights, they should go to bed at 4 p.m. and watch the first game from 2 a.m. I assume that Germany will change its biorhythm (laughs).
2023-07-18 18:40:10
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