WG women Dickenmann and Wirz about plans, goals and problems: ‘More has been achieved in women’s football abroad’

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Christian FinkbeinerFootball boss

Blick: Why the idea to establish this AG?
Lara Dickenmann: No one at GC’s football department was interested in women’s football and the associated project. Now we are structurally anchored.

Evelyne Wirz: For the football section, the risk of a women’s professional team with contract players and an associated budget would have been high. However, the section and the central administration have supported us in the replacement process. This independence helps us.

The Chinese owners don’t want to talk?
Dickenmann: No. Of course there are things where we come into contact with men. We are also increasingly making use of synergies. We now feel a lot of openness towards our business, be it from the chairman, sports director Bernt Haas or men’s head coach Bruno Berner. We can always contact them. The nice thing is that they can also benefit from us.

Does this mean that everyone at GC is a professional?
Dickenmann: We have people who could make a living from football, but still have a job or train voluntarily. With the young players we have good solutions with the schools. The goal is for everyone to work a maximum of 50 percent at any given time.

But many AWSL teams are far from that.
Dickenmann: We can only achieve this if all clubs work together with the men’s teams. Clubs like Real Madrid and Chelsea are showing the way. Turbine Potsdam, a major player in women’s football in Germany for years, has now been relegated. A women’s association itself has no chance in the medium term unless it has a patron in the background.

What was it like at Lyon then?
Dickenmann: That was also a process. At first we were neglected; our cloakroom was in a public building. Then we got a container. Since the club moved to its new stadium outside the city, its infrastructure has been consolidated, including offices, an academy and a small stadium for the women.

Contracts provide planning certainty and, in the event of poaching, transfer proceeds.
Dickenmann: This company does not yet work the same way as it does for men. The Xhakas and Shaqiris don’t exist yet, maybe once every five or six years. But that is not the point: development has priority, the contracts serve as security. If someone wants to leave, there’s no point in keeping her here. Ultimately the focus is on the player and not the money, even though one day I might get fired for this statement.

What is GC’s vision?
Dickenmann: We want to sustainably change women’s football in Switzerland and set an example. We want to be a platform for talents who can further develop with us and later move on to a larger competition. But we also want to win titles, become the best club in Switzerland and qualify for the Champions League. Women generally need to be supported and encouraged to train as coaches, referees or referees as there are far too few women in football. The vision also includes a football stadium in the city of Zurich.

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Wirz: Above all, the sporting success of the national team is important and acts as a magnet. Players move abroad and become role models for young people. Visibility is increasing and women’s football is becoming more interesting for sponsors. This also provides you with the financial resources that are essential for decisive further development.

Where is money most lacking?
Wirz: The juniors also need well-trained coaches and medical care must be correct, otherwise we will lose talent. All this costs a lot of money.

Who is going to finance all this?
Dickenmann: The AG gives us a different economic starting point. We are insured for five years. The connection with the GC brand and logo remains. But as a company it is easier to find sponsors and investors.

You ended your career in 2019, how has women’s football in Switzerland developed since then?
Dickenmann: More has happened abroad. Ten years ago we played against Spain on equal terms, and since then Spain has made enormous developments. But more has also happened in smaller countries such as the Netherlands. We’ve already made improvements, but there doesn’t seem to be any concept behind it.

Who is responsible? The association?
Dickenmann: It is difficult to blame everything on the association. The structures need to be changed, there need to be people in the central board who represent the concerns of women’s football, which is not the case so far. We are currently affiliated with the amateur league, which is not ideal because we want to professionalize ourselves. Everyone is challenged: the association, the competition, the clubs, the media, the economy, politics.

Wirz: We have a lot of catching up to do. We need a total concept in the association, like the men did more than twenty years ago and why they have made progress. Ultimately it is an association decision as to what you want. But you have to think about women’s football as a whole. It takes many players, one person alone cannot achieve enough.

How do you feel that a concept is missing?
Dickenmann: At the moment there is no platform that is really interesting for sponsors. The national team is a good platform, but the league is not. The association manages the competition, but it would be good if – just like with the men’s – there was an SFL that markets the competition as a product.

Wirz: If we want to move forward, we need a platform. The girls need role models and the perspective that they can pursue a career as a footballer. When I played football, we didn’t even know there were women’s teams. Women’s football has now changed enormously for the better. But countries that were previously no better than Switzerland developed significantly faster because there was more investment and better support.

How should you use the European Championship 2025 at home?
Wirz: Not a single fundamental development step is possible in two years. It would be important to define a development concept to be able to use Euro 2025 for further steps. At the moment you have to invest in the top and broaden it, so that the national team performs as well as possible. The results of the national team are crucial. This creates visibility. And then you have to be ready for all the girls who want to play football.

Dickenmann: But if 5,000 more girls suddenly want to play football, then we have a problem, because there are no fields or changing rooms.

After all, GC has the campus.
Dickenmann: Yes, we have a good time on campus. But apart from the men’s first team and some women’s training sessions, everyone trains at the same times. The places are not occupied all day, only in the evening. When the campus was built, there was no women’s football yet.

Why don’t you have U21?
Dickenmann: We have U19 and even U17 players who are already in the first team. It is better if we loan players within the ASWL than if they play in an U21 championship.

Wirz: First, the top ten teams must be strengthened with the best players. To keep the level as high as possible, we need to achieve a higher density.

Why are there so few women in football?
Dickenmann: For the generation before me, there were very few opportunities to bet on football. For a long time it was a very nice side business. But once you’re 25, you don’t feel like sacrificing all your free time for football anymore. Most people then stop because it is not an option professionally. Moreover, there are good opportunities to pursue a career in the private sector in Switzerland.

Why did you stay in football?
Dickenmann: Football is my core competency. I also studied, but I never wanted to build something completely different for myself. Moreover, at 35, I had no desire to start at the bottom in the private sector. I made a name for myself in football.

Do you also feel under pressure to promote women’s football?
Dickemann: Not under pressure, but responsible. But it is an exciting process, where the people I tried to change something with on the field are now also changing something off the field.

The network works despite competition?
Dickenmann: Yes, it works. Me and Sandra Betschart from YB can separate things relatively well. And we’re still waiting for one or the other. I talk to Lia Wälti a lot, but she is still fully involved in football.

How will women’s football develop?
Wirz: I am convinced that this will develop quickly and become an exciting financial story. Everyone who gets involved now invests in an interesting product. The fact that we are currently living in a rather difficult economic phase makes things a little more difficult, but that will come. However, the development will not reach the dimensions that exist in men’s football.

Where should women’s football go in the medium term? What is the vision?
Dickenmann: My wish is that women’s football is accepted, but not compared. I hope that it will become a platform that has the character of an event and that it will perhaps also be visited by a different audience. Women’s football also has positive effects on society when it comes to exercise and health. It can also convey values ​​and help with integration. Women’s football should not make the mistake of allowing itself to be ruined by more money being circulated.

Wirz: My vision would be that the pressure in society becomes so great that women can and are allowed to play football in every country in the world. Unfortunately, this will not be possible overnight. But if we can do that, the world would be a better place. And for Switzerland, I hope that other clubs can develop in the same way as us in the rankings, so that we can reach a higher level in Switzerland, which would lead to more and better visibility and be more interesting for sponsors.

Source : Blick

Emma

I’m Emma Jack, a news website author at 24 News Reporters. I have been in the industry for over five years and it has been an incredible journey so far. I specialize in sports reporting and am highly knowledgeable about the latest trends and developments in this field.