FC Viktoria 1889 Berlin, according to Wikipedia, is a football club founded in 2013 in Lichterfelde, nicknamed “the sky blue”, currently based in the Regionalliga Nordost. There is also a lot to read about history, successes, the stadium, statistics and the current squad and – last but not least, behind the bullet points “youth teams”, “other men’s teams” and “blind football” – that there is also a women’s team in the club.
The general importance of female Elf is thus clearly definedt. In order to change this, a considerable number of prominent supporters got together last year.
On the initiative of journalist Felicia Mutterer and Brlo Craft Beer managing director Katharina Kurz, the women’s team with the co-founders Ariane Hingt, German national player and two-time world champion, entrepreneur Verena Pausder, marketing expert Lisa Währer and manager Tanja Wielgoß was spun off as a GmbH in July 2022 .
One million euros in capital was collected from 87 investors, including Maria Höfl-Riesch, Carolin Kebekus, Nikeata Thompson, Dunja Hayali and Lea-Sophie Cramer, and Franziska van Almsick also became a member of the supervisory board.
The role model: Angel City FC. A women’s soccer team founded in Los Angeles in 2020, owned by Natalie Portman, Eva Longoria, Serena Williams and Jennifer Garner, among others.
Initial spark World Cup 2019
The initial spark for Katharina Kurz, who played soccer herself in her youth, was the women’s World Cup in 2019. At that time, Felicia Mutterer suggested showing the games in the Brlo beer garden as a public viewing event. After a brief hesitation as to whether anyone would want to see it, Kurz and her business partner Ben Pommer decided to do it – and were rewarded with a football festival.
The sustained euphoria afterwards led to the question of why there is actually no first-class women’s team in the major sports in Berlin, Kurz said. Through discussions in our own and extended network, the idea and then the team of founders came together, each of whom also contributes their specific expertise.
“We want to be in the Bundesliga within five years,” says Katharina Kurz about the immediate goal of the joint project. In the long term, however, the team, founders and investors are united by a larger mission: “To direct the spotlight to women’s football and to make a difference.”
I support the FC Viktoria Berlin women’s team not only because I want to contribute to women’s sport being given more recognition and appreciation, but also because football with women offers enormous potential from an entrepreneurial point of view.
Caroline Kebekus
The need to catch up is not only in image – “The difference is made by the media. Football is football, not women’s football” – but above all financially enormous, according to Kurz. “Men in the third division sometimes earn six figures. For women in the first, the average gross salary is 3,500 euros.
You really have to want that.” As one of the first measures, all players at FC Viktoria were given contracts – a pioneering achievement that has now also encouraged 1. FC Union to emulate it. The women in the regional league had previously paid membership fees and even paid for their jerseys at amateur level.
Gender pay gap in soccer
Even in the second division there are hardly any salaries. “These aren’t women who dream of a Lamborghini, but who really want to play football,” said Kurz. A commitment that is contagious. Katharina Kurz says it was surprisingly easy to win over celebrities as supporters. The topic obviously struck a chord.
Everyone involved is involved with their hearts, not just with money, and at the same time they are convinced that their investment is a good one. “I support the FC Viktoria Berlin women’s team not only because I want to contribute to women’s sport being given more recognition and appreciation,” says Carolin Kebekus, “but also because football with women offers enormous potential from an entrepreneurial point of view.”
Companies like Douglas and Stepstone, who support the team as sponsors, are of the same opinion. Of course, Brlo is also there: The beer from the craft brewers is only available in the Lichterfelde stadium for games played by the women’s team. The concentrated use of sporting ambition, idealism, money, celebrity and reach, the wide-ranging expertise of the founders and enthusiasm are already having an effect.
The women of FC Viktoria are currently in second place in the table (as of January 24), 800 to 1700 spectators come to the stadium for home games, instead of just 30 to 50 as before. “We wanted to create something for everyone. No women’s club for women,” says Katharina Kurz. She is therefore most happy about families with children, for whom the gender of the team makes no difference. “We’re going to soccer,” she often hears from the little ones, not “to women’s soccer.”
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