Female footballers from Germany are incensed after a judge punished a sexist coach by ordering him to coach women footballers after he stated that female referees have no place on a football field.
Heiko Vogel, Borussia Monchengladbach’s Under-23 coach was found guilty of making the inappropriate sexist comments towards female referee officials Vanessa Arlt and Nadine Westerhoff on January 30.
After reviewing the case, Vogel was hit with a fine of €1,500, a two-game ban and told to complete six female training sessions before June 30 by the court of the West German soccer association (WDFV).
Germany women’s team captain, who also plays for Wolfsburg Alexandra Popp (pictured below) as well as Players from the top two divisions have now voiced their concerns via Instagram, stating: “The question arises as to how the training of a women’s or girls’ team can be defined as punishment.
There is no value in offering to compensate for such unsporting behaviour by offering to train a women’s team for a few hours.”
The statement added that the judgement “discriminates against all women in sport and especially in football.”
Following the statement, the WDFV vice president Gundolf Walaschewski, has stated that the court has been asked to review the decision.
“There is no room for discrimination either in football or in society,” Walaschewski said.
“The WDFV and the football family in North Rhine-Westphalia are expressly committed to this. That means no tolerance for sexist discrimination and no tolerance for discrimination in general.”
The German football federation (DFB) vice president, Hannelore Ratzeburg, has also reacted, blasting the Court’s ruling .
“It’s incomprehensible to me that training a women’s team is seen as a punishment,” he said.
“I can therefore understand the players’ anger and why they have made themselves heard in public. We have been in talks with the WDFV for several days.
“The fact that the executive committee of the WDFV has ordered a review of the judgement is a correct and necessary sign.”
