Breakfast with Herbert Hainer, a meet & greet with Bianca ‘Jay’ Rech, a visit to the Skills Lab, a guided tour of the FC Bayern Campus, a discussion with Sweden international Magda Eriksson and watching the FC Bayern Women’s match against Jena together: At the exclusive ‘Behind the Scenes Women's Football’ event, which took place for the second time due to high interest, there was once again plenty on offer for the 30 FC Bayern members selected from over 400 applications.
The first surprise came right at the start, when president Hainer welcomed the members – dressed in traditional Bavarian costume: he'd made a special stop at the Campus on his way to the Oktoberfest, where he'd been invited by Munich's mayor Dieter Reiter. After a quick visit to the Wiesn, Hainer later returned to the game and watched the rest of the men's away match at Hoffenheim with the fans in the *1900 clubhouse.
In his welcome address, Hainer focused on the big picture. "Our FC Bayern women's footballers prove that strength, ambition and leadership qualities are not a question of gender," said the president. "I'm very impressed by their confidence, their willingness to speak out on social issues including beyond the pitch, and their overall message that women today can not only take part in the game, but also set the tone." In a society that still struggles with inequalities, "such strong characters are an important corrective: they inspire people to believe in themselves and to break down resistance – not only in sport, but wherever there are still prejudices and hurdles."
Jasmin Gaßner and Jenny Sajons from the membership department organised the event to suit the participants' wishes, with ‘Jay’ Rech providing behind-the-scenes insights into FC Bayern Women between the tour of the Skills Lab and the guided tour of the Campus. The main topic of discussion was the Champions League draw the day before, from which the FC Bayern Women director had returned late in the evening. "We accept these challenges and look forward to these tasks," she said, referring not least to the home game against defending champions Arsenal on 12 November at the Allianz Arena (kick-off at 18:30 CET.). After setting a record with 57,762 spectators at the Women's Bundesliga opener against Bayer Leverkusen, Rech said of this milestone: "That attendance showed what is possible – and everyone who was there went home happy." During her visit shortly before kick-off, Eriksson added how much the players are motivated by the steadily increasing influx of fans: "It's a big job to play for FC Bayern and inspire the fans – it's very fulfilling for all of us."
Rech stressed how important the club's dialogue formats are to her personally: "I always enjoy doing this because being close to the fans is important to us." Season ticket holder Christian Johann Gehring, who also attended the Women's European Championship in Switzerland in the summer, was impressed: "It was all very pleasant again today – that's how you want your club to be!" Claudia Zey, who became a member of FC Bayern because of the women's team, said she was particularly pleased that president Hainer had taken time out to attend the event: "It shows how important women's football has become." She summed it up with: "You can feel the sense of togetherness everyone always talks about. It was wonderful to be here today at this special event."
Pernille Harder scored a brace for FC Bayern Women on Monday evening to send them through to the second round of the DFB Cup:
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