SOCCER | 18.07.2011

German press review: The Women's World Cup set new standards

 

Is a boom in sight for women's soccer?

German editorial writers on Monday agreed that the 2011 Women's World Cup raised the sport's profile significantly. But they wonder how long the buzz will last.

 

"The viewing ratings were good, the matches were well-attended, fans were enthusiastic and, in the end, there was a worthy world champion - the Women's World Cup far surpassed expectations," wrote the Ostsee-Zeitung. "Here in Germany, soccer-playing women had never dominated the headlines like they did during this mass event."  But the northern German paper is skeptical that this enthusiasm will last: when Germany's women's soccer league season kicks off again, it said, media and fans will turn back to watching the men. What women's soccer needs, the paper concluded, is "an identity of its own."

The Märkische Oderzeitung agreed that, fun as the tournament may have been, women's soccer will vanish into thin air soon enough: "There will be no boom," the paper predicted, pointing out that the hype is over already, with men's soccer dominating the headlines again. "That is also part of the truth of this Women's World Cup." 

But the Mittelbayerische Zeitung dismissed such pessimism as "absurd." Women's soccer won't experience a widespread boom, the paper said, but the World Cup certainly gave the sport a jump-start. The women's soccer league also stands to profit, the paper said, even though it probably won't lure fans by the tens of thousands straight away: "You need time and a professional structure to organize fans, sponsors and TV time," the paper wrote, before lamenting the Germany's early exit: "They were under so much pressure that their failure was predictable." But in general, the Bavarian paper wrote, the Women's World Cup proved that women's soccer works without artificial hype. 

The World Cup was far removed from any media hype, Süddeutsche Zeitung agreed, - and still, it was a big success. "Even experts are surprised at the large number of people who watched the matches," the paper said. The southern German-based paper wondered why people were interested in games involving players they had never heard of just weeks ago, and took a closer look at the apparent appeal of women's soccer. It has nothing to do with voyeurism or feeling compelled to join the masses in viewing an event, the paper concluded:  "It's the game itself that is attractive."  Watching a soccer game, the paper said, always means "getting a glimpse of the athlete's soul" and how she deals with her expectations and that "thousand-headed monster - the crowd." In the end, the paper said, it was the soccer players themselves who showed that they deserved respect.

It was a special World Cup in many ways, the Leipziger Volkszeitung commented. The paper criticized the media's expectations of the female soccer players as "excessive": "They were expected to be beautiful, but not too beautiful. Athletic, but feminine too. Fair, but not too fair. And wouldn't it be great if the players voluntarily spoke about their sexual orientation," the paper said.

Compiled by Dagmar Breitenbach
Editor: Ben Knight

 

 

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