Eta’s role as the first female manager of a men’s team was followed by derogatory and gender-biased comments on social media.
Published on 14 April 2026
Union Berlin has condemned sexist online abuse directed at Marie-Louise Eta after she became the first woman to take charge of a men’s Bundesliga team.
Eta was appointed interim head coach on Saturday for the remainder of the season following the dismissal of Stefan Baumgart and will oversee the men’s first team until the end of the campaign before moving to the club’s women’s team.
However, her appointment was followed by derogatory and sexist comments on social media.
The club has pushed back against this online and in person.
Horst Heldt, the union’s director of men’s professional football, said, “We have 100 percent trust in Louis, with complete confidence. I find it crazy that we have to deal with this in this day and age, that we have to justify ourselves.”
Communications director Christian Arbit said Eta just wanted to coach.
“Marie-Louise Eta has a very practical approach to all this,” he said.
“She’s very conscious that it’s something special, but for her, football is in the foreground. She wants to work with the team, and she wants to be on the field.”
Responding to a comment expressing concern about Eta’s treatment and the potential gendered backlash if he lost the game, the club posted: “The Union family is with him.”
“With all due respect, this is sexism,” the union’s account on X said, responding to a post arguing that players would not take a woman’s instructions about strategy seriously.
This led to another comment being labeled “sexist”, claiming that any male coach who lost to her would lose face.
The decision to appoint Etta received praise from Berlin mayor Kai Wegner, who called the decision “a strong signal for women in professional football and elite-level sports”, but misspelled Etta’s name in the process. The club corrected him. “We were very overwhelmed,” Wegner replied.
Eta has been named interim coach for the last five matches of the season as Union aim to secure their place in the Bundesliga for next season.
Union had previously stated that she would take over as head coach of the club’s women’s team for the next season, but Helt did not rule out remaining with the men’s team after this season.
“I think it wouldn’t make sense to rule out anything beyond that at this point,” he said.
While the union said it would continue to protect employees from harassment, Helt said the club would do everything possible to ensure the debate did not continue.
Union are 11th in the Bundesliga standings and face the threat of relegation when they host Wolfsburg on Saturday.
