Over the past few months, the 14 Bundesliga clubs have driven forward a joint process to strengthen German women's football. Following the successful collaboration in the Women’s Bundesliga business plan ‘Geschäftsplan Frauen-Bundesliga Projekt GbR’, the "Frauen-Bundesliga FBL e.V." has now been created. Bayer 04 and the other clubs are joining forces in this organisation to ensure the modern, professional and sustainable development of the league and to further increase the economic performance of professional women's football.
The clubs are pursuing the goal of investing significantly in women's football, promoting it in sporting terms and further increasing its social visibility and relevance. It remains to be seen whether the German Football Association (DFB), which was originally also involved, will continue to support the process in the future. The association will initially be founded without the involvement of the DFB.
Fernando Carro, Bayer 04 Leverkusen CEO, said: "The founding of the FBL is an important milestone for our club and for women's football in Germany. The fact the act of foundation will now initially take place without the DFB is very regrettable and, given the circumstances, also disappointing. I would like to emphasise that the clubs' negotiators enjoy our full confidence and can be sure of our support. We remain hopeful that the challenges that have arisen can be overcome in the near future."
The official founding ceremony of the Frauen-Bundesliga FBL e.V. will take place on 10 December at 14:00 CET at the Adler Business Club at Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt am Main.
This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
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With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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From Ouagadougou to Leverkusen – and back: in March, Bayer 04 travelled with Edmond Tapsoba for a special project in his homeland Burkina Faso. The country where his roots and heart lie. The country where he’s more than a world-class defender: a symbol of hope and a role model for an entire generation. The result is a 45-minute documentary about Tapsoba’s long journey from Africa via Portugal to Leverkusen, which offers extraordinary, one-off and emotional insights.
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Edmond Tapsoba has signed an early extension to his contract with Bayer 04 Leverkusen. With two years left on his current deal, the 27-year-old Burkina Faso international has extended his contract until 30 June 2031. The centre-back joined as a young talent from Portuguese top-flight club Vitoria Guimaraes at the start of 2020.
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