Someone please inform German soccer that coaching women is not a 'punishment'

A male soccer coach, after launching a tirade against three match officials (two of them women), is suspended by his team's regional governing body and — gasp! — forced to coach a women's or girls' team for a whole six sessions.The story reads like a cringeworthy television pitch. (Like this one.)But that's what's happening in Germany, where Heiko Vogel, coach of Borussia Monchengladbach's Under-23 men's side, has been suspended for two matches, fined about $1,800, and commanded to train a women's team as punishment for "unsporting behavior" toward officials during a game in January.It is possible, we suppose, that the intention is to show Vogel that women and girls deserve his respect.But really, it's showing the women he deigns to spend those six practices with (and female footballers all over) that coaching them is punishment for behaving badly, and disrespect of their abilities lingers in too many corners.As Nicole Selmer, a journalist with Frauen im Fussball (Women in Football) told ESPN, "This punishment for the Gladbach coach puts coaching a women's team on a level with social work."And if Vogel doesn't approach those sessions honestly, it will be a waste of time for the women he's supposed to be coaching, punishment that they didn't deserve.