Growing the game: The Deutscher Fu ball-Bund on pushing production innovation for the rapidly growing Women's Bundesliga By Heather McLean Tuesday, October 7, 2025 - 10:04
Print This Story
As the Frauen Bundesliga has grown exponentially, the Deutscher Fu ball-Bund (DFB) the German Football Association and the Women's Bundesliga have teamed up to create a joint venture that will see the league stand independently, and continue to grow
Frauen Bundesliga - the German women's league is soon set to be governed by a new independent body as the growth of the women's game in Germany goes from strength to strength. Currently the Women's Bundesliga is run by the German Football Association, the Deutscher Fu ball-Bund (DFB). However, moving forwards the Women's Bundesliga clubs and the DFB will jointly own a new independent company that will seek to push the growth of German women's football forwards.
The technology drive for the broadcast production of all the leagues under the DFB umbrella now and looking ahead at the evolution of the Women's Bundesliga comes direct from the DFB. Daub says that because of the petite size of the broadcast team at the DFB, he is able to push through new, innovative broadcasting ideas very quickly.
The technology drive for the broadcast production of all the leagues under the DFB umbrella now and looking ahead at the evolution of the Women's Bundesliga comes direct from the DFB
Pushing innovation
Daub explains: I'm a freelance venue operations broadcasting manager for UEFA in the Champions League, so I have a strong knowledge of what is allowed in the UEFA world and also in our national team matches. Most of the innovation we do, we do because we think it's good.
We had the refcam first in our Cup Final this year; we were the first doing it in-match, even before the Club World Cup. That's us pushing those innovations, he notes.
Some of the DFB's partners, such as host broadcaster for the Frauen Bundesliga, Sky Deutschland, push for the use of new broadcast technologies, but most do not Daub says.
Read more Evolving in-house: Developing broadcast expertise and pushing the women's game at the Deutscher Fu ball-Bund
Sky is always pushing us to use the drone, refcam and [other broadcast technologies], but our other partners [on the Women's Bundesliga] DAZN, Deutsche Telekom, Sport1, ARD and ZDF they like it but they don't push us. We push innovation ourselves because we want to create this product.
It's more like I try to do nice crazy shit before the DFL is doing it, he adds. DFL and Sportcast have hundreds of people; at DFB, it's me and my boss, and whenever I pitch an idea he says, looks good! . So it's a short decision path. We push ourselves and we push those innovations, those ideas.
Deutsche Fu ball Liga (DFL) heads up the men's Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2, and the DFB heads up all other football leagues in Germany.
Adds Daub on a new broadcast innovation he is hoping to get into regular use: Now we are in contact with Mindfly regarding this body cam. It's a vest you put over the jersey or underneath the jersey; I know Mindfly from Salzburg; I was working for UEFA in Salzburg and they had a test [of the technology] there. So we do push innovations. Mindfly produces its AI BodyCam product, which enables fans to experience the game from the point of view of any player.
Frauen Bundesliga the German women's premier league kicked off on 6 September with Bayern Munich Women versus Bayer Leverkusen Women and with an almost sold out stadium at the Allianz Arena in Munich
Closer to players
The DFB also pushes off-pitch innovations, such as interviews, says Daub. In 2026 the DFB will hold a tender for the production company for the Women's Bundesliga and the third league, and we will think about [ways of] being closer to the match and to the player .
He says that the Women's Bundesliga is much more open to new broadcast ideas than the men's, which is giving the DFB's broadcast team real creative licence to push the production now and going forwards.
He says: At the moment, for example, in Women's Bundesliga we have halftime interviews with players. During the Super Cup after the halftime whistle, a player from Bayer Munich did a halftime interview with our two broadcasters; she came off the pitch, she did an interview, and then she went to the dressing room the halftime. So we also tried to push those innovations, and we are now thinking about interviews with a player that has been substituted during the match, because in the women's football they are more open than men's; men's Bayer Munich they're like, no, no, no, don't be too close! .
But in the women's game during the season, half of the clubs are already doing halftime interviews with the players, because they say players come off the pitch so a one minute interview and then you go to the dressing room is fine.
Daub says another innovation being considered for the women's game is a camera in the dressing room for the coach's speech. He says the DFB is considering compiling a list of innovative broadcast additions and asking every team in the league to choose one to participate in.
Maybe in the future we can think of innovation packages, he notes. There could be 10 different innovations and every club needs to do one during the season, like a substitution interview, coach speeches, a camera in the dressing room, an interview in the bus, whatever. We try to push to use women's football because they are very open and they know they need to be open. And then we also work closely with the clubs, of course. We ask them, what do you think about this? Can you imagine that? .
Forward planning
Daub adds that the addition of ne
