Girls’ soccer in Lübeck: No district selection – does it fail because of 3000 euros?

Neele Kohlscheen and Lotte Engel prevail. With the boys of the B-youth of TSV Groß Grönau they mix happily – although they are sometimes two years younger than their teammates. Her talent is undisputed, and coach Thomas Engel wanted to “establish initial contact with women’s teams with an elite school at the beginning of the year”. The next figureheads for Lübeck after having it for example Anna-Lena Stolze a talent made it into the professional women’s field? No, because Kohlscheen and Engel run for the Stormarn district selection. The selection of girls in Lübeck was crushed in 2018.

Saving on girls’ football

The person responsible for the topic is District Football Association (KFV) Lübeck. There is no girls’ soccer committee in the Hanseatic city “for personal reasons”, as is the case with other organizations at the same level, says the women’s representative Antje Frank to the Lübecker Nachrichten and refers to board member Peter Reinecker, who says: “In 2018, the SHFV (Schleswig-Holsteinischer Football Association, editor’s note) that we as KFV should issue fines to the clubs as individual invoices instead of in a collective invoice as before. The individual bookings relieve the full-time employees at SHFV. There the main office goes before the volunteer office. But this means we have additional work and costs of around 3000 euros. “

Money that the association saved elsewhere – the selection of girls. For this, the KFV needs “around 3500 to 4000 euros a year for the rental of the training grounds and halls, supervisors, the organization of selection games or fees,” says Reinecker.

Talents there, lowest level of promotion gone

The fact that Lübeck’s district selection breaks down is crumbling the foundation of talent promotion. Usually the best female players first play in a circle. If they prove themselves there, there is an invitation to the SHFV base, then the country selection may follow and if things go perfectly, they will wear the DFB dress.

The girls in Lübeck, on the other hand, “don’t know any district selection at all. The base doesn’t matter either. Talents slip through, ”says Marco Cloppatt, who works for the SHFV trained at the girls’ soccer base in Lübeck. Since there is no district coach, he scouts himself every now and then and has identified “great talents”. But the difference in quality between a girls’ team and the base is often too great. The circle selection as a link is missing – with consequences. Michael Clausen, endowed with great experience in women’s and girls ‘football, predicts: “The lack of a girls’ circle will have an impact on the quality of the later women’s teams.”

SHFV extends a hand

The promotion of talented girls is demonstrated to the people of Lübeck right on their doorstep. The Stormarn girls’ selection even won the state championships in 2019 – by then the Lübeck talent selection no longer existed. David Kraußer, Finance Officer at KFV Stormarn could not judge the situation in the Hanseatic city, but his association would have had “no problem” to continue the selection of girls due to the billing change in 2018.

In Lübeck, on the other hand, it “doesn’t look as if we can financially support a selection of girls” for the coming year, says KFV board member Reinecker. And what does the SHFV say? There one speaks of a “misunderstanding” between the two parties. In 2018, the regional association digitized the bookkeeping and provided a fine tool. “The KFV Lübeck is the only district football association that does not use the tool,” says Tobias Kruse, member of the SHFV management. However, anyone who fills out their bills by hand and sends them to Kiel pays a fee – to the chagrin of the people of Lübeck who do not want to change.

But now the SHFV wants to break through the fronts. “We raised the issue in the Presidium at the beginning of December and want to ensure that every district football association has a selection of girls. We are still in the process. If the money were really the reason, one would have to discuss grants – which of course every KFV would receive, ”says Kruse. According to the SHFV, there is one thing that should by no means happen: to settle disputes on the back of the girls.

By Andreas Breitenberger