FC Bayern Munich produces everything from pink handbags, jewellery and even underwear specifically for its female fans who now constitute 10 to 15 percent of the buyers of team gear, according to Die Zeit newspaper.

Other teams are also scrambling to figure out how to get into women’s wallets, as they become more interested in football.

The number of German women who say they are interested in football has increased by about 25 percent to 25 million over the last decade, according to Die Zeit.

Meanwhile, 15 million women say they are fans of a specific football club, 40 percent more than in 1998. The number of female visitors to football matches has doubled over the same period.

Much of the interest could be attributed to the success of Germany’s women’s national football squad, which has won two world cups over the past decade. But the Bundesliga has been actively courting them too.

Casual, fashion-conscious fans are also being targeted by teams creating trendy-looking products like high-quality polo shirts and sweaters that might seem more likely to be sold in fancy clothing shops than football stadiums.

“The clubs have especially great growth potential in this area,” said Peter Rohlmann of the PR Marketing public relations agency, which studies sports marketing.

This is just one way in which German football teams have bucked worries that they could be affected by Europe’s growing financial crisis. In fact, in 2011 they grossed €165 million from licensing and merchandise sales alone – a 15 percent increase over the previous season.

The Local/mdm