Mainz merge with FSV Schott to form new women's team
FSV Mainz 05 announced on Friday that they would launch a new Women's team next season.
The Rheinhessen arrangement mirrors that of the SGE in that Mainz will cooperate with a smaller local club in order to allow them to play in the color of the men's team. In this case, the women's local club is TSV Schott Mainz of the Women's southwest regional league.
FSV Sporting CEO Christian Heidel took care to emphasize that the partnership was meant to help enhance the status of Schott and not to interfere with its identity. The TSV will continue to host matches and work in conjunction with their larger club counterparts to advise the FSV.
"We hold Schott in high esteem," Heidel stressed, "One shouldn't have the impression of a hostile takeover or anything like that. It was something that both sides wanted. For us, it's a great story."
FSV Mainz's involvement nevertheless means that there shall be "ambitious goals" accompanying the new Nullfünfter tricots donned by the women. Heidel, like his administrative predecessors, made clear that the short-term objective would be promotion to the 2. FrauenBundesliga. Schott currently plays in the third-tier Regionalliga SüdWest.
The state of Women's football in Germany has fallen under much criticism in recent years after several established stars began leaving regularly for England's WSL approximately three years ago. When the pandemic hit, Germany's FrauenBundesliga found itself unable to compete with the WSL for many American female footballing stars looking for new clubs after their domestic league (the NWSL) cancelled its season.
The current league positions of the two of the three newly founded Women's teams underline the fact that the new entities still have a ways to go. Eintracht's Women's team currently plays in the top tier, but Schalke and Dortmund remain in the third division.
The German women's national team, after winning back-to-back World Championships in 2003 and 2007, has not made the Women's World Cup Final since. After winning six consecutive continental championships, the Frauennationalmannschaft was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the most recent Women's Euros in 2017.
The German Women get a chance to reassert their European dominance at the delayed Women's Euros this summer, to be held in England.
🔚Das war's von der PK zur Kooperation mit dem TSV SCHOTT!
— 1. FSV Mainz 05 (@1FSVMainz05) April 1, 2022
🔜 Weiter geht's um 13 Uhr mit der Spieltags-PK vor #BMGM05 pic.twitter.com/MXsFjXFtmP
