As of: 05/24/2023 9:24 p.m
The billion-dollar deal fell through: the controversial investor entry into the German Football League (DFL) failed due to massive resistance from its own ranks. St. Pauli President Oke Göttlich sees the outcome as an opportunity.
At the meeting of the 36 professional clubs on Wednesday in Frankfurt/Main, the necessary two-thirds majority for the admission of Negotiations with potential investors missed. This was stated by the meeting participants after the end of the meeting. Accordingly, there were eleven no votes and five abstentions. Four votes were missing for the two-thirds majority. With this, the skeptics have settled on the club tours of 1. FC Köln and des FC St. Pauli enforced.
“We first have to develop a clear strategy, together and constructively.”
Oke Göttlich, President of FC St. Pauli
Oke Göttlich, President of the second division club FC St. Pauli, sees the failed entry of an investor at the DFL as an opportunity for new paths. “We first have to develop a clear strategy, together and constructively – and then we can finance it in a targeted manner in order to achieve our clearly defined goals,” said Göttlich in a press release from the club. “The result and the controversial debates show that there was still a great deal to be clarified and that there were too many unanswered questions.”
The result of the vote is a crushing defeat for the DFL leadership around the chairman of the supervisory board, Hans-Joachim Watzke, and the interim managing directors, Axel Hellmann and Oliver Leki, who had campaigned in advance for broad approval.
“As of today, the topic is closed. That’s democracy.”
DFL supervisory board chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke
“The process is over today,” emphasized Watzke. The topic of competitiveness is “obviously not that important for some, otherwise the barrier for the next phase would have been removed. We will receive constructive suggestions from those who did not agree in the next few weeks. I am very, very convinced of that,” led the BVB boss visibly offended and with a good portion of gallows humor.
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Hellmann also criticized the opponents directly. In the leagues he found “absolute consensus that there is a need for investment”. That is why the voting behavior is “amazing”. With “every year that goes by, with every investment that other leagues make, it becomes more and more difficult for us,” said the interim boss. It is now up to those “who were loudly opposed to answering the question of where security and stability for the Bundesliga will come from in the future”.
Despite the secret ballot, the management level pointed the finger mainly in the direction of the second division. During the discussions, “clear differences” between the 1st and 2nd leagues became clear, stressed Watzke.
“Have to tackle challenges in the 36 group.”
Klaus Filbry, Managing Director Werder Bremen
Klaus Filbry, CEO of the Bundesliga club Werder Bremen, on the other hand, went into the result very factually: “We note that the league did not achieve the necessary two-thirds majority for this step to bring the process to the next phase. These are democratic processes that you have to accept.” , said the 56-year-old. “The challenges identified in the process so far remain, and we now have to tackle them in the 36 group and try to solve them.”
FC Bayern fears greater distance to England and Spain
FC Bayern Munich even sees dangers in the international comparison with the vote. “The aim was to strengthen the Bundesliga and the second Bundesliga. With this model, the larger clubs would have shown a lot of solidarity with the smaller ones,” said CEO Oliver Kahn. “Now there is a risk that the gap to England and Spain will widen further. And that would be detrimental to all clubs, big and small.”
DFL had hoped for proceeds of two billion euros
The critics, which also include numerous fan groups, had denounced the possible influence of a donor and the further cementing of the sporting balance of power. Details of the planned agreement that have recently become known suggested exactly that. The failed plan looked like this: An investor should have acquired 12.5 percent of the shares in a DFL subsidiary, to which all media rights would have been outsourced, over 20 years. The league hoped for proceeds of two billion euros from the sale.
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At another meeting in early or mid-July, the selected donor should have been awarded the contract. The capital should primarily be put into the central marketing of the media rights and the development of a streaming platform. 750 million euros were earmarked for digitization.
It should provide the basis for a successful global marketing of the league. 300 million euros should go to the clubs for free use (according to the currently applicable distribution key). The rest of the money would have been earmarked for infrastructure investments by the clubs.
Clubs would probably have threatened a loss
The model was not without risk. For the two billion euros, the clubs would have had to forego 12.5 percent of their media revenues in favor of the investor for the duration of the contract. Even with moderate growth in revenue (currently just under 1.3 billion per season from home and abroad), that would have been well over 3 billion over two decades – a loss-making business.
Fan alliance expressly welcomes the vote
The citizens’ movement “Finanzwende” and the fan alliance “Unsere Curve” expressly welcomed the failed investor entry into the German Football League (DFL). The DFL members had decided “for the interests of the fans”, as Jorim Gerrard, the group’s financial market expert, wrote in a statement: “The commercialization of football will not be reversed, but a new dimension of profit orientation has been successfully prevented. ” In general, this is “very good news”.
Goal of the DFL: ensure the competitiveness of the league
For the DFL leadership around the interim bosses Axel Hellmann and Leki, on the other hand, the start-up financing was “without alternative” in order to ensure the competitiveness of the league. In addition, in the best-case scenario, sales should be increased through the investments in such a way that, despite the payments to the financier, there would have been a higher profit than before. So the goal was a win-win deal.
Critics argue for other options
The skeptics saw it differently. They pointed out that the interests of the investor could conflict with those of the league in many areas. They plead for other ways to get fresh money. The anticipation of future income was the wrong way for the critics, which would even have harmed professional football in the long term.
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The opponents of the investor’s entry were not changed their minds by the threats recently built up. Leki had warned that if the deal fell through, debate would begin about splitting the Bundesliga off from the rest and ending “subsidies” for the smaller clubs.
“Should nobody come to us with solidarity issues in the near future.”
DFL supervisory board chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke
It is clear that Leki, like Hellmann, will now vacate his position as interim managing director on June 30th. Watzke, on the other hand, wants to stay. He had “never run away. However, if at some point the opinion spreads that we should go into unrestrained debt in order to accumulate growth – have fun. I won’t do it then,” emphasized the 63-year-old.
In any case, after May 24, 2023, there will not be much left of the much-vaunted solidarity in German football. The fronts seem finally hardened – the coming months promise a lot of excitement. Watzke made that clear: “No one should come to us with solidarity issues in the near future.”
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