Soccer-German FA boosts membership, confident of bounce back from pandemic

The German football association (DFB) had its total number of members for the 2021-22 season rise to a record 7.17 million while new registrations also hitting an all-time high after two years of the pandemic, it said on Monday.

The German football association (DFB) had its total number of members for the 2021-22 season rise to a record 7.17 million while new registrations also hit an all-time high after two years of the pandemic, it said on Monday. The total membership figure for the world's largest single sports body by the membership was up from 7.06 million in 2021, and DFB president Bernd Neuendorf said the outlook was good.

"The return to the sports pitches and normality has been successful," Neuendorf said in a statement. "The current figures increase the confidence that football can come out of the crisis stronger. "I feel a sense of enthusiasm. Especially the sharp increases in the youth figures are making us happy."

DFB members are registered members at more than 24,000 clubs across all regions of Germany. Members are senior men and women players, as well as all registered youth players until the age of 18. The DFB said a return to sports and football following two seasons hit by the COVID-19 pandemic boosted new registrations to 346,000, the most since records started in 2016. It is more than double the number compared last year.

There are currently more than 24,000 registered clubs and more than 2.2 million active players.

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