Female president: Eta appointment shouldn't be considered exceptional

Union Berlin new coach Marie-Louise Eta leads the training of the German Bundesliga club 1. FC Union Berlin at the Alte Foersterei. Marie-Louise Eta is the first woman in a European top league to take charge of a men's team. Matthias Koch/dpa

Eintracht Braunschweig president Nicole Kumpis has hailed the appointment of Marie-Louise Eta at Union Berlin but said that existing football structures make it difficult for more women to have a coaching career in Germany.

Kumpis was a trailblazer herself when she was elected president of the second division club in 2022. Eta became the first woman to coach a men's Bundesliga team when she succeeded Steffen Baumgart on Saturday.

"I know Marie-Louise, I was very happy for her and wished her a lot of success for this task. But at the same time we are not where we should be in 2026 because such moves should no longer be something exceptional," Kumpis told dpa.

"There is no lack of skill but of structural conditions and opportunities.

"It is therefore even more important that more women become visible and enter leading positions in professional football - on the coaching bench, in management or in committees."

The German governing body DFB started an initiative to get significantly more women involved in 2021.

Six of the 14 women's Bundesliga teams have a female coach but there were only two women from the 50 people who obtained the highest DFB coaching licence, the pro licence, over the past two years.

The DFB however said: "Compared with all other European national associations, the DFB has trained the most female coaches with a pro licence – 31 in total."