The basic agreement has been negotiated and is about to be passed. The professional association DFL will pay significantly more to the DFB in the future, which can use the money very well.
So far, June has been peppered with sporting setbacks and discussions for the German Football Association (DFB), especially that about the future of national coach Hansi Flick. On Friday (06/23/2023) there should finally be good news for the association.
The green light for the million-euro deal with the German Football League (DFL) as the umbrella organization for the 36 professional clubs from the Bundesliga and 2nd division could at least briefly lighten the gloomy mood at the crisis-ridden DFB. At the executive committee meeting on Friday, the new basic contract with the DFL is to be approved.
Jump from six to around 25 million euros
The warm rain of money is urgently needed by the financially troubled association – even if it certainly does not pay a new national coach. An increase of around 25 instead of the previous six million euros should jump out of the contract per year for the DFB. The basic contract regulates the flow of money between the associations, the previous agreement expires at the end of the month.
The path to the new deal, which still has to be formally confirmed by a DFB Bundestag and a DFL assembly, was rocky. In between, Hans-Joachim Watzke even more or less threatened himself. The DFL supervisory board boss Watzke let the DFB vice president Watzke know that the league was not “fully comprehensive insurance for the mistakes of the DFB in the past”, as he said in an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” said.
Going to an arbitral tribunal or even breaking with the DFB was in the air because the DFL did not want to meet the “exorbitant” demands from the amateur camp.
Various clauses
Watzke and DFB President Bernd Neuendorf had to pull themselves together not to let the dispute escalate. In the end there is a compromise that, according to media reports, contains various clauses on the use of the money. After all, the professional clubs, who fight for every euro themselves after an investor’s entry failed, only want to pay for the association’s work that they consider sensible.
Huge financial gaps at the DFB
The professionals are not ready to plug the huge financial gaps at the DFB. It recently became public that the association’s financial difficulties are even greater than expected. The new construction of the campus, which opened in 2022, costs 30 million euros more than previously known (180 instead of 150 million), the structural deficit is almost 20 million euros per year and renewed tax law inconsistencies have caused further economic damage.
According to Neuendorf, “ten working groups” are currently meeting to get the problems under control: “We’ll bring the results together in a few weeks and see what savings potential the DFB has.” The results are not supposed to be available until July 4th, but the members of the presidium will certainly want answers to their questions about the finances by Friday.