VfL Osnabrück will also take part in the Virtual Bundesliga (VBL) next season. The club made the announcement in a press release. However, the purple-whites chose a special path and founded an eFootball team “of a special kind”.
Statement “for diversity”
Accordingly, the cooperation with SV Viktoria Gesmold will be expanded. As a result, the Lower Saxony will set up a team that “should consist exclusively of talented female and non-binary players.” This is made possible by the support of the esport player foundation, “which, in cooperation with the Equal Esport initiative, will professionally take care of the support and promotion of the players.”
“The topic of eSports is polarizing in the existing structures of conventional football, but is particularly relevant for the younger generation. With our participation in the VBL, we want to try to break up the scene, which has so far been heavily male-dominated, and make a statement for diversity “, says VfL Managing Director Dr. Michael Welling and adds: “Especially in eSports, gender doesn’t play a role in the competition itself .”
Criticism of participation regulations
At the same time he formulates criticism of the participation rules for the VBL: “If in a few years it is common practice in the VBL that mixed teams compete against and with each other, then we would be happy about that – even if we as VfL Osnabrück then possibly due to the special, From our point of view, the idea of circumstances undermining sporting competition should no longer be allowed as participants.”
Because only the first and second division teams are allowed to compete in the competition. If a club is relegated to the 3rd league, the right to start is lost. A controversy discussed annually. For example, FC Ingolstadt 04, which was successful in 2021/2022, had to go into the third division and could not maintain the eSports team in this form.
Scouting tournament: squad place and scholarship from the Equal Esports Initiative
With regard to the search for players, VfL organizes a scouting tournament that is held in the Esport Factory in Osnabrück. Interested players can now register using an online form. In addition, the three future players in the squad will receive “a corresponding grant from the Equal Esports Initiative, which is individually compiled from a list of over 100 funding modules with the aspects relevant to the respective athlete.”
After Fortuna Dusseldorf, VfL Osnabrück, the next second division team, also has a team in the virtual competition of the German Football League for the first time. The purple-whites also communicated the VBL criteria that apply to this season in the licensing process as the decisive reason. Anyone who does not provide a team faces unspecified sanctions. However, these consequences have no influence on the game operations of football professionals, and as with other licensing criteria, exceptions are possible “in justified cases”. It remains to be seen whether all first and second division clubs actually take part in the VBL. 1. FC Magdeburg, SV Elversberg and Union Berlin, who were still averse to kicker eSports inquiries, are still missing.
