Union Berlin fans at the Alten Forsterei stadium during a Bundesliga 2 match
Union Berlin, a club deeply rooted in its fan base, is embarking on an ambitious journey to transform the landscape of women’s football in Germany.
Since turning professional in the 2023-24 season, the women’s team has achieved consecutive promotions, securing their place in the Frauen-Bundesliga this year.
With an average attendance of 7,000 in the second tier last season, Union Berlin boasted the fourth-largest fanbase among women’s clubs in Europe.
Their impact has been immediate, and this past weekend marked their inaugural trip to England, where they faced Aston Villa in a pre-season friendly, resulting in a 1-0 defeat.
“It’s quite the club. It’s very family-orientated,” Jennifer Zietz, director of women’s football, told BBC Sport.
“There are a lot of emotions for traditional soccer. We also have very crazy supporters!”
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According to Zeitz, the Alten Forsterei, the club’s 22,000-seater stadium, is “at the heart of the club.”
“It gives you a very unique experience,” she added.
This is not just any stadium; it was built by the supporters themselves.
In 2008, facing financial constraints and a dilapidated stadium, nearly 2,500 fans dedicated over 140,000 hours to transform the Alten Forsterei into the arena it is today in southeast Berlin.
The women’s team now shares this hallowed ground, with thousands of Union Berlin fans turning out to support the newly professional side.
“It’s why the stadium is so important for the fans because they helped to build it,” said Zeitz.
“They make no difference between the men and the women. No matter who is playing, they support the footballers on the pitch.
“The players play with their hearts and with intensity. These are the things the fans want to see too.”
When the men’s team qualified for European football in 2022, the influx of funds led the fan-led board to invest in its female players, offering full-time contracts and salaries on par with Germany’s top clubs.
Ailien Poese, a former Union Berlin player whose grandfather also played for the club in the 1950s, arrived from the German Football Association to take on the role of head coach.
Zietz followed as managing director, along with a host of prominent signings from Germany.
Promotion to the Frauen-Bundesliga was the ultimate goal. In their inaugural professional year, they scored 145 goals and conceded just five.
Last season, they secured promotion to the top tier with a resounding 10–0 aggregate victory over SV Henstedt-Ulzburg in the promotion play-off final, drawing a crowd of 20,000 fans.
“To pay a good salary is very important. We know this. I think also that we give them personal support,” said Zietz.
“We can help players develop in our club, play with this atmosphere and we show we are very ambitious.
“We want to be playing in the Women’s Champions League over the next few years. The players see this and they trust us.”
Union Berlin boasted the fourth-highest average attendance across Europe last year.
The club’s fans, known as the ‘Unioner’, have a saying: “We don’t go to football, we go to Union Berlin.”
Whether it’s the men’s or the women’s team, they come out in numbers to support the club. A small marketing team has helped drive the crowds, but it is ultimately down to the club’s culture that their support for its women’s team is so big.
Over 4,000 season tickets have already been sold for their debut campaign in the top flight, and plans are underway to expand their stadium to a 40,000-capacity arena.
In a 3-1 friendly defeat by Real Madrid last week they had almost 10,000 supporters there, and a handful flew over from Berlin for their defeat by Villa.
That support is nothing new. When the club were close to losing their licence due to financial difficulties in 2004, a fundraising campaign called “Bleed for Union” encouraged supporters to donate blood to Berlin hospitals and give the compensation they received back to the club. They literally bled for Union Berlin.
“At the game with Real Madrid, players were very excited to see our fans. They were taking pictures,” said Zeitz.
“That isn’t normal in Spain or Germany. It’s really cool get we get these big crowds. We made women’s soccer at our club bigger.
“We went out and communicated. We said ‘we have two professional teams, not a men’s team and a women’s team’.
“We showed everyone the captains of both teams. We told everyone there is no difference between them.”
Fans of Union Berlin follow four rules known to locals as “the laws of booing” – don’t boo your own players, don’t make scapegoats of your own players, don’t leave before the final whistle and give everything.
The atmosphere they create has been a key negotiator when trying to sign new players from Germany’s elite clubs.
This summer, they signed former Eintracht Frankfurt captain and Poland international Tanja Pawollek.
Paying the players salaries which compare to that of Werder Bremen and Bayer Leverkusen means they can offer an elite environment to develop.
“At this moment, the money comes in from the men’s side but every club can decide where that money goes to and what department to use it in,” said Zeitz.
“We choose to use it to support women’s football. It’s not like other clubs in Germany. They say they support women’s soccer but they don’t do anything.
“We spoke about it, then we did it. In the future, we want to make it a business on the women’s side. We want money to come into the women’s team and to use it on the women’s team.
“We want to support women’s football in Germany. There are maybe three or four clubs in Germany who support professional women’s football. The other clubs are not this ambitious. This, we have to change in Germany.”
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