Volkswagen is one of the backers of this year's UEFA Women's Euros football competition, and the car maker says that it's “underlining its commitment to equality in football.”
OK, what's VW doing to help?
Quite apart from being a sponsor of Women's Euros, which is of course a higher-profile event than ever, VW used the opportunity to hold a discussion panel in Basel on the topic of 'Female Empowerment' with experts in economics and sport discussed the progress in women's football as well as the visibility of women in society.
Who was on the panel?
The panel included Christine Wolburg, Chief Brand Officer of the Volkswagen Brand, who said: “We have been wholeheartedly promoting women's football and women in football for many years now. We want to help make women more visible - in football and thereby also in society.”
Wolburg pointed out that Volkswagen is not only supporting the Women's Euros tournament as the pinnacle of women's European football competition, but it's also supporting the sport right down to the grass roots with the Future Leaders in Football training programme - a platform enabling young women from around the world with a passion for football to share ideas. “By supporting this workshop series, we are promoting even greater female involvement in football”, said Wolburg.
Who else was there?
German football star, and captain of the national women's team, Alexandra Popp, was also on hand. She said: “Women's football has made an incredible leap forward in a short period of time. The progress that the visibility of women's football has made in recent years is extremely positive. Within a short time frame, professionalism, quality, and awareness have been increased significantly.”
Lisa Währer, Managing Director of FC Viktoria Berlin, highlighted the positive fact that no fewer than seven of the 16 Euro competitors have female trainers: “This is progress that I would also like to see in the world of work. Women are still often underrepresented in managerial positions even though they make up 50 percent of society.”
Was it all about football?
Nope - there were other speakers on the day, including Anke Helle and Mateja Mögel - the editors-in-chief of the magazine 'freundin'. Mögel said: “As a dual leadership, we want to demonstrate how women can better support each other. We are living out female empowerment.”
VW also wants to promote the idea that women's football isn't women's football - it's just football, and it can be every bit as good as the male side of the game, and it wants to use the #NotWomensFootball campaign to: “Point out that the way people speak distinguishes between football and women's football - as if they were different sports.