Bundesliga women in top management roles see slight increase

Bundesliga women in leadership professional football gender diversity sports management

A new report by the organization ‘Fußball kann mehr’ (FKM) shows a slight increase in the representation of women in top management positions within the German Bundesliga (1. and 2. Liga). For the 2025/2026 season, women held 9.6 percent of the 94 top management positions, up from 6 percent in the previous year.

Key milestones highlighted in the report include Tatjana Haenni becoming the first female CEO of a Bundesliga club at RB Leipzig, Marie-Louise Eta serving as the first female coach for a men’s team at Union Berlin, and Kathleen Krüger joining the board at Hamburger SV. Other notable appointments include Svenja Schlenker at Borussia Dortmund and Jennifer Zietz and Katharina Kienemann at Union Berlin.

Despite these advancements, the report notes that the industry remains male-dominated. Out of the 36 clubs surveyed, 29 still have exclusively male management at the highest operative level. Katja Kraus, co-initiator of FKM, cautioned that while these high-profile appointments are significant, they do not yet represent a broad systemic change across the league.