Welcome to football country! With this slogan, Germany successfully won the right to host the FIFA World Cup™ in the summer of 2006, going on to reveal itself as a passionate footballing country in every sense. The fantastic atmosphere was characterised by the fundamental values of our sport such as fairness, friendliness, respect and tolerance, and was generated by the boundless passion of millions of fans at home and abroad. Countless girls and women played an integral part in creating this joyful euphoria.
Steffi Jones Enlarge image (© OK 2011/Kunz) Specifically in Germany, women and girls have been largely responsible for the dramatic increase in German Football Association (DFB) membership in recent years. Furthermore, the tremendous international success of the women’s team has made a major contribution to the nation’s favourite sport. Germany is not just a football country, but specifically a country of women’s and girls’ football. “The future of football is feminine,” according to FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter, a vision which has already become reality here to a very large extent.
Following the fantastic men’s FIFA World Cup in 2006, we would already now extend a warm welcome to Germany to fans from every continent, for a hopefully no less impressive and thrilling global festival of women’s football in 2011. Five years after the unforgettable summer of 2006, the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2011 promises to be a wonderful tournament and source of excitement and joy, when our nation and its people will again show themselves to be friendly, peaceful, cosmopolitan and hospitable.
Since the beginning of 2008, our Organising Committee has been busy with initial preparations for the tournament. I personally consider it a great honour that the DFB Executive Committee under its President Dr Theo Zwanziger appointed me President of the Organising Committee. I do not regard myself merely as a figurehead, but as an active member of the OC team. I have always seen myself as a team player – as a member of the national team and at club level in Frankfurt, and during the two years I spent with Washington Freedom in the USA professional league – and will continue to do so.
Franz Beckenbauer Enlarge image (© OK 2011/Kunz) Naturally, we at the OC can build on the extensive experience and know-how gained at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and we benefit from the flawless infrastructure and wonderful array of stadiums constructed for and since that event. However, the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2011, which will in any case be smaller and of different dimensions due to the starting field of 16, should not aim to be a duplicate of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. We want this tournament to write its own story, a family-oriented story based on a sense of togetherness, itself a strong characteristic exhibited by women and girls.
Moreover, we hope the tournament will advance two further causes which lie close to our hearts. On the one hand, we wish to enhance the standing of women’s and girls’ football both nationally and internationally on a permanent basis. On the other hand we hope to strengthen and accelerate the game’s power as a force for integration, which I also accept as a personal challenge. For a long time now, it has been one of my guiding principles to intervene on other people’s behalf, and involve myself in social and socio-political matters.
Against this background, we wish everyone the warmest of welcomes to our festival of women’s football in Germany. Celebrate with us, discover the passion and excitement of the women’s game, and let yourself be bewitched and immersed in a very special sense of togetherness! I’m joining you in looking forward to a reunion with friends.
