Marco Krieger (board member): "It is important for us as a club to go out and try out new formats, such as our street soccer tournaments, with various partners in order to bring non-members into contact with club sport at a low threshold. The tournaments on the football pitch, in which anyone can take part, are ideal for this. New variations are also used for "gamification", such as goals counting double in the last three minutes. We have various sports on offer at the club and are happy when children and young people in particular find their sport. Tournaments can be a good platform for this - the next one is scheduled for fall 2025. In my opinion, the main challenges for the future of soccer in Berlin are to once again focus on the core and added value of non-profit club life and to develop innovative concepts to attract and retain referees."

Club: FC Viktoria Berlin
Idea: "Promoting women's soccer innovatively"

Pamela Holzlöhner (Chair of the Women and Girls department): "The start-up funding from the Innovation Award has helped us to implement our "Girls' Campus" project much faster and gain important experience. All girls train at one location and across all ages, which means that the teams and coaches are much better networked with each other. We only had to make adjustments to the larger women's teams, as the need for coaches to support them is very high. The demand for girls' soccer is high. The only limiting factors are pitch times and a sufficient number of volunteers. Our goal is to continue to strengthen the status of girls' and women's soccer as an independent department so that it has the same status as men's soccer. Our wish for the future is that strong tournament formats and brands for women's and girls' soccer in Berlin and Germany are established and supported by the media."

Club: FC Internationale Berlin
Idea: "1st Zero Waste Matchday in Berlin"

Anton Klischewski (Board Member - Sustainability, Commitment): "An ecologically sustainable society is essential in order to be able to maintain amateur soccer as we know it. Changing climatic conditions, which we are already noticing, can also pose a threat to amateur sport - for example, through more periods of heat, drought or extreme weather events such as storms or flooding. At Inter, we try to focus on "doing" and making sustainability tangible. Two exemplary projects for this are our recyclable jersey with a "cradle to cradle" approach, and the zero waste match day. The Innovation Award helped us to organize the Zero Waste Matchday on April 5, 2025 successfully implemented. With our projects, we want to create positive examples that other clubs and associations can follow, just as we like to learn from other players. Because only together can we meet the challenges of man-made climate change and find solutions." (YouTube video on the Zero Waste Matchday)

Club: Berliner Athletik Klub 07
Idea: "Futureamateurs 07"

Burak Isikdaglioglu (2nd Chairman): "Football needs committed people to look after it, otherwise it will be destroyed. This includes an appropriate culture of appreciation for volunteers, both within the clubs and in the association, also in the form of fair expense allowances. At the BAK, we also try to reduce and digitize as much bureaucracy as possible, for example in membership administration, in order to keep personnel costs as low as possible. In this respect, the Innovation Award was a good and unbureaucratic format - this is the only way to reach and activate the "grassroots" and, in the best case, one or two amateur soccer players. Clubs, associations and politicians must work together to find fair and innovative funding opportunities for volunteers and set up the sports infrastructure in Berlin for the future, otherwise amateur soccer will have a problem."