Stadtwerke Gießen and the 1st women's football team of TSV Klein-Linden are working together for the next three years.
Women's football is booming. This is not only evident from the increasing number of television broadcasts, but can also be seen in real life in the Central Hesse region. For example at TSV 1889 Gießen-Klein-Linden e.V. The club has been offering women the opportunity to play football since 2011 - organised in a league. And quite successfully. The first team is in its second year in the Hessenliga - the highest division in the state association. "We hope to stay in the league again this season," explains Anke Lörch, head of the football department at TSV Klein-Linden. In this role, she was instrumental in the contract negotiations with Stadtwerke Gießen (SWG), which were recently finalised. "We are happy to support such a committed team in such an active traditional club," says SWG company spokesperson Ulli Boos, explaining the three-year partnership.
Financial help
TSV Klein-Linden needs a relatively large amount of money to keep the first team playing. Although there are no win bonuses or other financial incentives for the players - unlike for men in this class - costs are still incurred. A central issue is the away games. This is because the team sometimes has to travel quite a few kilometres to play in Kassel, Calden, Rüsselsheim or Wiesbaden. To get there, TSV Klein-Linden borrows minibuses from other clubs. Although the fees for this are manageable, together with the petrol costs they add up to considerable sums.
Regardless of the fact that two nine-seater coaches always make more ecological and economic sense than four or five cars, there is no real alternative to this approach in Kleinlinden. "A special feature of our first team is that many female students play here who don't usually have their own car," says Anke Lörch, describing the situation, adding: "The support from SWG also helps us to cover the travelling costs."
However, the cooperation between the TSV Klein-Linden women's football team and SWG is not limited to the financial support described above. The team will be wearing new jerseys in future. All the players also received a large, functional bag. "It's just a nice picture when the girls get off the buses in uniform," says a delighted Anke Lörch.
Important groundwork
The 1st women's football team of TSV Klein-Linden is not SWG's first sponsorship project with the active multi-sports club. In fact, there has been a cooperation with the inclusion team Football ID since 2015. "The excellent cooperation with TSV Klein-Linden at all levels was an important reason for us to also get involved in women's football. But the concept that the footballers pursue so consistently is at least as important," continues Ulli Boos. In fact, what has been created here in recent years is something to be proud of. "It was clear to us from the outset that we needed a functioning foundation if we wanted to be successful in sport," explains Anke Lörch. In other words, girls who play football at the club and sooner or later join the women's teams. But these young players don't come about on their own. "We laid the foundation around ten years ago with a holiday pass campaign. We were able to attract the first children to us," recalls Anke Lörch. Later on, we started organising clubs in schools. And a football school organised in cooperation with a well-known regional broadcaster especially for girls also attracted many new players. Today, around 80 girls and young women between the ages of 5 and 16 play football at TSV Klein-Linden. Some of them are there to have fun, others have sporting ambitions. One of the two U16 teams, for example, plays in the Hessenliga for youngsters. "These players usually have the potential for the first team," says Anke Lörch.
Those responsible at TSV Klein-Linden already have the next stage of expansion in mind. After all, many children and young people - girls and boys alike - still want to play football at the club. This requires competent, ideally licensed coaches. "The club tries to recruit them from the first team or the older junior teams," reveals Anke Lörch. And this is also successful: "So far, we have already been able to recruit five players to complete the training programme and take over one of our girls' teams.
Exciting season finale
From a purely sporting point of view, the season could have gone a little better. In fact, the Klein-Linden footballers have never had anything to do with relegation so far. This year, however, it is likely to remain exciting right to the end. This is because the team is struggling with personnel problems. Not because some players have been injured, but because of the aforementioned high proportion of female students. The connection is not obvious, but quickly explained: the holidays between the winter and summer semesters fall completely within the season. And this spring, a particularly large number of players used the semester break to go home to their families and were therefore absent from the pitch. But now that everyone is back on board, hopes are high that TSV Klein-Linden will be able to stay in the league. The team is currently one point ahead of the first relegation place. On 18 May, the team will face league leaders Haitz. The exciting season finale at the Pfingstweide will also take place on 25 May against one of the top teams - TSG Lütter. Kick-off is at 5 pm.