Exclusive members’ event at the FC Bayern Campus – panel discussion on ‘50 Years since the women’s championship win’

“Over half a century of success on the pitch – pioneers, professionals, prospects, between resistance and world-class status”: this was the theme of a very special, exclusive members’ event at the FC Bayern Campus, to which the club had invited guests to the *1900 clubhouse to mark the 50th anniversary of FC Bayern Women’s first league title. On the panel, president Herbert Hainer, Bianca Rech (director of women’s football), former USNWT international Gina Lewandowski (league champion with FCB in 2015 and 2016) and Sissy Raith, representing the 1976 team, discussed developments over the past decades with 90 club members selected at random from over 270 applications.

“We can all be proud that the club has been enjoying success for over half a century,” said Rech, and Hainer added: “FC Bayern is always ahead of the curve – you can’t pay these women enough respect.” Raith shared a few anecdotes during the panel discussion, which was entertainingly chaired by TV pundit and former FCB goalkeeper Kathrin Lehmann. “We were given a reception by the city back then too,” she said, adding with a laugh: “Only we weren’t on the balcony, but in the basement of the town hall: the Ratskeller.” Hainer spoke about the reception given by 5,000 fans at Marienplatz (“you can see how interest is growing – and how approachable the team is”), and Lewandowski, who had travelled specially from the USA, recounted how her surname once made the headlines simply because Robert Lewandowski was playing up front for Bayern at the same time: “Today, women are making history in their own right.”

Following a welcome address from managing director Benny Folkmann and a video clip entitled ‘50 Years since the championship win’, the panel discussion began. Among those in the audience were Christl Süß and Traudl Langer, the twins who, back in 1970, had responded to FC Bayern’s newspaper advert calling for the formation of a women’s team – despite a ban by the German Football Association (DFB) – and who were part of the championship-winning team in 1976. “All these women were pioneers; they were brave and didn’t let themselves be put off by all the silly comments that were made back then,” said Hainer, and Bianca Rech picked up the thread: “We can still build on that today. All we need now is one more league title, and then we’ll be joint record champions with Bergisch-Gladbach: in both the men’s and women’s competitions – that’s a goal, another milestone – and we won’t let up.”

In Raith’s day, women’s football was a completely marginal sport, Hainer explained; even when Lewandowski was a young girl, girls in Germany still had to look up to Bastian Schweinsteiger as a role model: “Women’s football wasn’t visible. Today, players such as Giulia Gwinn, Lena Oberdorf and Pernille Harder are showing, as role models, that you can achieve anything if you believe in yourself and follow your own path. The social impact of women’s football is enormous, and we at FC Bayern will always encourage people to fulfil their potential – here, too, sport builds bridges.” Commitment within the club is always key, said Rech; president Hainer, for example, had attended the Champions League matches against Manchester United and Barcelona, “and the acquisition of the Sportpark is the next milestone in this development”.

During the panel discussion, the conversation with Raith centred on how, having once been the youngest member of the team (aged 15), she went on to become FCB head coach after a total of 11 seasons with the 'Reds' and 58 appearances for the German national team, and even – a pioneer through and through – worked as a coach in women’s football in Azerbaijan. Lewandowski added to the discussion by sharing her perspective from her home country, the US, where professional women’s football can look back on an eventful history.

At the end of the event, members Tanja Hilmer, Andrea Poschmann, Rita Löbel, Diana Ardelean, Luca Cortese and Eberhard Lüder, as winners of a quiz, were presented with an exclusive jersey modelled on the 1976 kit, and to round off the evening, everyone took full advantage of the opportunity to have their photo taken with the mascot Mia, the 1976 trophy, the current Meisterschale and the recently won DFB Cup – both of which Rech had brought over specially from her office to the *1900 clubhouse.

A look back at FC Bayern Women’s season: