Union Berlin Women – the German club attracting thousands

Fan-owned club Berlin Union has an ambitious vision – to change support for women’s football in their country.

Since their women’s team first entered the 2023-24 season as professional, they have since received back-to-back promotions and will make their Frauen-Bundesliga debut this year.

With an average crowd of 7,000 in the second tier last season, Berlin Union were the fourth-best supported women’s club in Europe.

Their first game since returning from a 1-0 pre-season friendly defeat to Aston Villa this weekend saw them make an immediate impact.

It’s a true club, “. Director of women’s football Jennifer Zietz told BBC Sport, “It’s very family-oriented.

Traditional soccer has a lot of emotions, according to the author. We also have a lot of crazy supporters.”

According to Zeitz, the club’s 22, 000-seater stadium, the Alten Forsterei, is “at the heart of the club.”

It provides a truly unique experience, she continued.

It is a stadium that its supporters built, not just any stadium.

Nearly 2, 500 fans spent more than 140 000 hours renovating the Alten Forsterei to create the arena it is today in south-east Berlin despite having limited funds and a crumbling stadium that was unfit for purpose in 2008.

The women’s team now play there too after fans of Berlin Union were coming out in their thousands to support the newly professional side.

According to Zeitz, “The stadium is so important for the fans because they helped to build it.”

“They don’t matter between the men and the women,” they say. They cheer the football players on the field, regardless of the team’s position.

The players “play with their hearts and intensity” Fans want these things to happen as well.

When the men’s team made the decision to pay their female players full-time contracts and salaries that were comparable to those at Germany’s top clubs when they qualified for European football in 2022, money flowed into the organization.

Head coach Ailien Poese – a former Berlin Union player, whose grandad also played for the club in the 1950s – arrived from the German Football Association.

Numerous well-known German signings followed in the form of Zietz as managing director.

The goal was to become a member of the Frauen-Bundesliga. In their first year of service, they scored 145 goals and gave up five.

With a 10–0 aggregate victory over SV Henstedt-Ulzburg in the promotion play-off final, the club acquired 20 000 fans and was promoted to the top tier last season.

Paying a high salary is very important, they say. This is common knowledge. Zietz added, “I believe we give them personal support.”

We can help players grow within our club, play in this environment, and demonstrate our high level of ambition.

Fans of the club, known as the ‘Unioner’, have a saying: “We don’t go to football, we go to Berlin Union.”

They show up in large numbers to support the club, whether it is the men’s or women’s team. Although a small marketing team has helped to entice fans, the club’s culture ultimately drives its support for its women’s team.

For their first season in the top flight, over 4, 000 season tickets have already been sold, and their stadium will soon be expanded to a 40, 000-capacity arena.

Nearly 10,000 supporters were present at Real Madrid’s 3-1 friendly defeat last week, and a small number of them flew over from Berlin to watch Villa’s defeat.

That support is nothing new. When the club were close to losing their licence due to financial difficulties in 2004, a fundraising campaign called “Bleed for Union” encouraged supporters to donate blood to Berlin hospitals and give the compensation they received back to the club. They literally bled for Berlin Union.

“The players were very excited to see our fans at the game against Real Madrid,” said the manager. They were filming, Zeitz claimed.

“That is not typical in Germany or Spain. It’s really cool when there are these large crowds. We expanded the number of women’s soccer teams at our club.

We left and spoke, “We went out.” We stated that there are only two professional teams, not a men’s and a women’s.

“We displayed the captains of both teams to everyone.” We stated to everyone that there was no distinction between them.

Fans of Berlin Union follow four rules known to locals as “the laws of booing” – don’t boo your own players, don’t make scapegoats of your own players, don’t leave before the final whistle and give everything.

When attempting to sign new players from Germany’s top clubs, the atmosphere they create has been a key negotiation tool.

Tanja Pawollek, a former Eintracht Frankfurt captain and international from Poland, was signed this summer.

They can provide an elite environment for development by paying players salaries that are comparable to those at Werder Bremen and Bayer Leverkusen.

The money is currently coming in from the men’s side, but Zeitz said that each club could choose where the money goes and what division to use it from.

“We made the decision to use it to support women’s soccer. It differs from other German clubs. They claim to be supportive of women’s soccer, but nothing is done.

We discussed it, and we resolved to do it. We want to start a women’s side business in the future. We want to use the money on the women’s team and to enter it.