The symposium "Making clubs strong for diversity in sport" is a platform that opens up space for perspectives that are underrepresented in organized soccer. The format is the result of a cooperation between the Berlin Football Association and the LSVD Queer Diversity Association Berlin-Brandenburg. The event is organized by the Competence and Coordination Office for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Sport, funded by the Senate Department for the Interior and Sport, takes place annually and celebrated its 15th anniversary on Friday, 29 May 2026. Around 50 people from soccer clubs and other sports clubs and associations came to the premises of the Federal Foundation for Equality to exchange ideas and learn from each other.

"The interest in our event shows how great the need for networking and further training on the topic of diversity in sport is," said Alice Drouin, Head of the Competence and Coordination Office for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Sport at the LSVD Queer Diversity Association Berlin-Brandenburg. "We look forward to deepening our cooperation with the BFV and learning from and enriching each other for many years to come."

Florian Winkler-Schwarz, Managing Director of LSVD Verband Queere Vielfalt Berlin-Brandenburg, said in his welcoming address: "The debates surrounding the participation of tin* people in Berlin soccer in recent weeks have once again shown many queer people how fragile the participation of queer people in sport still is. Especially for trans*, inter* and non-binary people. Anyone who really takes the team concept in sport seriously must understand that all people are welcome in sport. We shouldn't talk about it, we should all take responsibility."

Özgür Özvatan, BFV Vice President for Social Responsibility, emphasized in his speech: "Diversity is the reality of Berlin. We have a high proportion of people with a migration background, we have many queer people, we have people who are affected by various forms of discrimination. All of these people also play soccer and it is our job to give them safe access to our sport and to put openness into practice."

But how do you translate visions and content from communication campaigns into practice? Listening is a key to getting there. We should not see other perspectives and positions as an attack, but as an indication that the same situations are perceived differently by different people. Diversity is not a challenge, but an opportunity. The chance to learn from other perspectives and to grow together.

This was also emphasized by Safa Semsary, who is involved in soccer in Berlin, in her keynote speech at the 15th symposium: "An inclusive soccer culture is characterized by dealing with defeat and criticism. Justified objections should not be seen as an attack. Constructive criticism is often an indication of dysfunctionality and is therefore very valuable in order to further develop existing structures."

Following the keynote speech, the visitors to the symposium split into two workshops for a 90-minute working phase. Coach Greta Budde (including the 1st women's team of Türkiyemspor Berlin) took her part of the group into a practical exchange on how coaches and managers can take diversity into account and strengthen it in everyday club life. "We tried to collect concrete ideas. We talked about inclusive language, we talked about how to spread knowledge about the stop rule at soccer matches and we talked about people of trust on the topic of diversity in the clubs."

The second workshop, in which I also took part, was moderated by Teo Lünstroth and Maziar Taymoorzadeh and dealt with critical masculinity in soccer. Together, we talked about traditional and patriarchal role models that permeate our entire social structure, but which are particularly evident in soccer due to its competitive nature, its focus on performance and its physicality. It is not easy to break through structurally grown expectations of men, such as a dominant and self-confident demeanor or emotional distance, as we have learned these over centuries. And it would not be truthful if I were to claim that, as a cis-hetero man among many FLINTA* people in a workshop on critical masculinity, I did not also feel insecure. Reflecting on and discussing "typically male" behaviors that are part of everyday life in sports and that restrict non-male people in their space is not a "walk in the park" for me either. It requires leaving your own privileged comfort zone and showing empathy for other realities of life. But that is the minimum we need to do as a society. Which brings us back to the point mentioned above: We shouldn't see criticism as an attack, but as an indication of dysfunction in the system. A system that was built and continued almost exclusively by men.