Germany's women looking to World Cup with optimism

The disappointment of the Euro 2022 final defeat by England has long since given way to optimism in the German national team camp.

"We have very good conditions here in Marbella to get even better," said captain Alexandra Popp at the team's winter training retreat in southern Spain. "To improve on small details in order to ideally win titles."

It was an expression of confidence and building hype around the team, a buzz which can also be measured in numbers.

Growing interest in women's soccer

More than 17,000 tickets have been sold for the international friendly in Duisburg against Sweden on February 21. A sellout would be a quantum leap in German women's soccer. After years of debates about too early kickoff times and a lack of TV presence, a new development is emerging.

Alexandra Popp has long felt the effects. "It's actually a little crazy. Two years ago, I could still walk around in big cities with peace of mind. Today, I can't do that anymore," she said. "But I see it very positively, as recognition and appreciation that people have seen us."

The national team wants to build on this hype in Germany and let it grow even further at the next major event: the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in July.

Tight schedule

The Women's Champions League has been expanded and the density of dates in the calendar has increased. But no one on the German team is complaining about that.

Instead, the upcoming tasks are more of an incentive for those involved to continue growing the importance of women's soccer. The spectators also perceived the team as a real team at the European Championship. "We want to continue to build on this flow and hype. And now we want to do better next time," said Popp.

Goalkeeper Merle Frohms agrees. "We were in the European Championship final and were already close to the title. Each of us were disappointed that it wasn't enough," she said. "All the more motivated we are now to go home with the title at the end of the tournament." Accordingly, the players have no doubts about their own performance. 

Domestic game developing

According to the German Football Association (DFB), the number of active women in the game has increased by 25% since 2021. The association is now hoping there will be further positive effects after the Women's World Cup. The DFB wants to host the next World Cup in 2027 together with Belgium and the Netherlands. 

In the women's Bundesliga, however, strides still need to be made. Despite new attendance records, such as the season-opening match between Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayern Munich attracting 23,200 spectators, attendance in the league is rather moderate. On the first nine match days, the number of spectators increased to a total of 173,438 (up 17% on the same period last season) due to the top matches. But for games such as Eintracht Frankfurt against Werder Bremen, only around 2,000 spectators are in attendance. SV Meppen match against Hoffenheim attracted just 654 paying visitors.

Compared with the men's Bundesliga (3,392,774 fans), the women lag well behind. The average attendance of 41,886 spectators per game (men's Bundesliga) is more than 13 times higher than the women's figure (3,211 per game). Nevertheless, the trend is clearly pointing upward.

The women's national team, at least, has seen a significant increase in popularity. "It's just nice to see this development, that viewers follow women's soccer, that they see it as authentic and honest. That's a very nice compliment," said Frohms.

The DFB's strategy is long-term and is intended to culminate in the fairy tale of the 2027 World Cup on home soil — but the first task is a successful World Cup in Australia and New Zealand this summer.

This article was translated from German.