German football body condemns sexist remarks about Union coach Eta

German football player and EURO 2024 tournament ambassador Celia Sasic attends the photo call for the film "Eleven Tomorrows: Berlinale Meets Football" presented in the Berlinale Special section of the 74th Berlinale Film Festival. Hannes P Albert/dpa

The German Football Federation (DFB) has condemned the sexist remarks made on social media about Union Berlin coach Marie-Louise Eta.

"The comments are unacceptable. They're not directed solely at a single individual, but call into question values that are central to our sport: respect, fairness, and equality," DFB vice-president Celia Sasic, told the t-online news portal on Sunday.

Eta became the first woman to be the head coach of a men's team in one of the top leagues in Europe. She made her debut on Saturday with a 2-1 defeat to VfL Wolfsburg.

She kept receiving hate comments on social media after the match and the club directly responded to some of them, which Sasic said was "absolutely the right thing."

The DFB is also prepared to deal with hate messages directed at Eta during matches. Sasic explained that the federation has clear procedures in place to filter out, report, and, if necessary, forward offensive or criminal comments to the public prosecutor's office.

"As a general rule, the DFB monitors every match very closely when it comes to discrimination or inappropriate behaviour. There is zero tolerance for sexist or discriminatory incidents," she said.

Eta herself said that the comments don't bother her.

"It says more about the people posting it online than about the people being talked about," she said.