Schalke announce women's team to compete in Germany's eighth tier
Schalke will officially have a grass-roots women's football team from next season, competing in the eighth tier of women’s football in Germany.
The club said in a statement that it will begin building the framework for its women’s team over the next few months, with Bodo Menze, the club’s youth coordinator, acting as director. The first training sessions will take place on July 18.
It is understood that the Schalke’s lowly league start is because German women’s leagues work differently to those in England: where Women’s Super League and Championship teams are often able to start at any point on the pyramid if they meet the appropriate licensing criteria, German women clubs must take over or be acquired by clubs already in the first or second division, else work their way up the ladder.
A women’s team will therefore be added into the Kreisliga B Herne, Bochum and Gelsenkirchen division, with an U17 junior women’s team competing in the Kreisliga (Herne, Gelsenkirchen and Recklinghausen). Each year thereafter, another youth side will be formed from U15s downwards to facilitate a natural build up of the women’s division.
Menze said: “I’ve watched a lot of women’s football over the last few years, especially during the World Cup, and was extremely excited by the quality football on show. It’s ever since then that I’ve been wanting to create a women’s football team here and I’m so happy that I’m able to do that now.
“As a board member of the Schalke Markt foundation, I’ve always tried to live by their motto ‘Preserve tradition – Shape the future’ in trying to make football better, just as they’ve helped the Schalke-Nord region. Therefore I’m extremely excited to be a part of the women’s football project here at Schalke 04, and we’ll be in talks with everyone shortly about what will happen next.”
Jochen Schneider, sporting director, added: “By establishing a new women’s and girls’ division, we want to expand our range of sporting endeavours. We’re incredibly excited to see women and girls finally playing football for our beloved Schalke.
“Our main focus is within the academy and amateur sports as we look to develop a new branch of youth sports that girls and women of all ages can call home.”
