1. FC Union Berlin will further cement the professionalisation of the women's football team ahead of the new season. For the first time on a full-time basis, the experienced Ailien Poese will take over as head coach of 1. FC Union Berlin's women's team, as well as, the management of the women and girls' department at the club. The strategic goal is to provide the right professional environment for women's football at 1. FC Union Berlin and target promotion to the Bundesliga.

A graduate of the high-level "Football Teacher" programme in 2017, Poese remains under contract at the German Football Association and coaches the U16 Women's National Team. In the colours of 1. FC Union Berlin, Poese played for the Köpenick club between 1998 and 2010. She was the head of the women's and girls' department up until 2013 before handing over to Julia Wigger. At Berlin's regional federation, she managed the department for women's and girls' football and continued her coaching career at the German FA. Her U17 Women's National Team picked up a European honour in 2017. Her transition to the DFB was complete on a full-time basis last summer.

"We have made a club policy decision to initiate a long-term process that has a historic dimension for women's football at 1. FC Union Berlin. The women who play football in our club should be able to develop the same competitive sporting aspirations as the men in the future. As a Bundesliga club, we are in a position to provide the necessary funds to advance the professionalisation of the entire department. It is time to take this step consistently now," said 1. FC Union Berlin club president Dirk Zingler.

"I'm very pleased that Union wants to use the strength gained in recent years to give women's football significantly more weight at the club. It will be a challenging task to combine the training of talent from the junior level with a competitive sporting perspective in the first-team I would like to devote all my energy to this task together with the team of the women's and girls' department and the entire club. If we succeed in the next few years, our sporting goal can only be the Bundesliga," commented Poese about her new challenge at 1. FC Union Berlin.

"We are underlining our ambitious sporting reorientation in women's football with concrete personnel and structural measures in the women's first-team, which will already come into effect for the new season. I'm very pleased that we were able to win Ailien Poese for this task. The women's and girls' department, which has been very well set up by Julia Wigger under the previous conditions, is very well prepared for the next step in its development. Julia Wigger will actively accompany this process," said Lutz Munack, 1. FC Union Berlin's Managing Director for Youth and Amateur Football.