Ellen Fokkema: An example for German football to follow?

Mixed gender youth football has become commonplace in the Netherlands. There have been mixed youth football teams there since 1986, with teenage boys and girls allowed to play together in the same team up until the age of 19.

After that, female players then had to make a choice between an exclusively women's team or a category B men's team – the reserve team of a club in the fourth division or lower. Until now.

"For the 2020/21 season, the KNVB is launching a pilot project in cooperation with VV Foarut, enabling women to participate in amateur men's football in category A," the Dutch football federation (KNVB) announced.

The decision means that 19-year-old Ellen Fokkema will be allowed to play for VV Foarut's senior men's team in the Dutch fourth division. VV Foarut, whose initials stand for Voetbalvereniging or football club, are based in the town of Menaldum near Leeuwarden, the regional capital of Frisia in the north of the country.

"The KNVB supports diversity and equal rights," said Art Langeler, head of football development with the federation, which he says receives regular requests from women who want to play in men's football at amateur level. "This case involves a sporting challenge which we don't want to stand in the way of."

After several requests of her own, Fokkema has now also been granted permission to play at a higher level, and she finds it "fantastic" that she can continue to play with her teammates.

"I've been playing with these lads since I was five," she said. "It would have been a huge shame not to be able to play in this team anymore. My teammates are all delighted that I can stay."

Fokkema, who has also represented the Dutch national team at junior women's level, has even turned down a professional contract from women's top flight outfit SC Heerenveen, preferring to focus on her training to become a nurse.

An example for German football to follow?

Over the border in Germany, the regulations are similar to those in the Netherlands.

"In principle, the statutes allow for mixed football up to under-17 level, but it's partially down to the regional federations to actually implement that," a spokesperson for the German Football Association (DFB) told DW.

"Some regional federations only allow mixed teams at under-15 and under-17 in exceptional circumstances and specifically for talent development. In the younger age brackets and in children's football, teams are generally mixed."

However, there is no separate under-19 age bracket in women's football - due to lack of demand and the fact that players at that age generally already play in senior adult teams. And because junior statutes no longer apply at that level, the women can't play for junior teams.

"For reasons of talent development, it's possible for current national team players to obtain an exemption with the agreement of the relevant national or regional team coach," explains the DFB spokesperson.

They recommend, however, that the responsible regional federations "work with players and clubs to find sensible, practical solutions for each individual case. The overriding factor must always be that we at the DFB have a responsibility to enable to all people, players or otherwise, to participate in football."

Women in German football

Several women have already made inroads in the professional men's game in Germany: Bibiana Steinhaus is an established Bundesliga referee and Imke Wübbenhorst has this season become head coach of fourth division men's side Sportfreunde Lotte.

In 2003, Italian Serie A side AC Perugia made headlines when they made an offer for the former Germany striker Birgit Prinz, although many suspected it was merely a marketing ploy conducted by the club president, who had also signed the son of the then Libyan president Muammar el Gaddafi.

The latter signing ended in a doping scandal, whereas Prinz' never even took place. The three-time world player of the year followed the lead of Sweden's Hanna Ljungberg and Victoria Svensson and turned Perguia down – "for sporting reasons."