analyse
Even without the billions of euros from an investor, the German Football League, which is riddled with deep cracks, must and wants to rethink its business model. There are big tasks ahead.
Ending. Out of. Basta. For the next few years, the entry of an investor should no longer be an issue. But that only applies to an investor brought on board by the German Football League (DFL). Investors have long been involved in individual clubs, and most of them could be added at any time. Or will the league open up completely, abolish the 50+1 rule and thus take the say over the members away from the parent clubs?
There were so many unanswered questions about the planned DFL deal that it burst on Wednesday (May 24, 2023) with a bang that reverberates – and again raises many questions.
What’s next? That is the overriding question. Like before? Then it will be difficult, that is the consensus among the 36 clubs under the umbrella of the DFL.
roof flies away
Axel Hellmann was happy to use the picture of the roof. It rains in some places, said the interim managing director of the DFL, so it has to be renovated with the help of the investor.
To stay with the picture, the roof blew off on Wednesday. Hellmann questioned the central marketing, which ensures that the league collects billions of euros primarily through the sale of media rights and then distributes them to the clubs.
Hans-Joachim Watzke, spokesman for the league presidency, openly announced that no one would have to show solidarity to him and his club Borussia Dortmund in the future.
Deep cracks instead of natural tension
Hellmann and Watzke didn’t even try to hide their anger at the eleven clubs that refused to continue the investor process. Watzke showed no understanding at all for the five clubs that abstained on a fundamentally important question.
But perhaps it was like in coalitions where party A says “yes” and party B says “no”, and the government therefore abstains. Did the parent club, did the fans demand a “no”, but the outsourced corporation a “yes”? There were and still are different interests in the clubs, and in the heterogeneous DFL the interests diverge even further.
The German Football League has a natural tension, but deep cracks have now appeared. That became clear in the hotel at Frankfurt Airport, where Watzke admitted that “some trust had been lost” in the weeks before.
The question of how the cracks should be repaired is preceded by the question of who should do it. Hellmann and Oliver Leki, the other interim managing director, will stop on June 30th.
New Managing directors sought
It is possible that a double leadership will be installed again in July, but maybe it will only be one person. Watzke would have liked to see the interim as a permanent solution, but first Leki and then Hellmann declined. Jan-Christian Dreesen from FC Bayern is now considered a promising candidate, but also with the Munich team if the board of directors, Oliver Kahn, is no longer trusted by the supervisory board at the end of May.
Bernd Reichart is also traded at the DFL, although he is currently still the top lobbyist for one Super League is.
Big tasks
The tasks will be great for the new management, because the sale of the audiovisual rights, the main source of income for the period from the 2025/26 season, is pending and has to be put out to tender.
In the event that it remains with a central marketing, the distribution key must be negotiated.
New strategy
If the waves calm down and the club community is willing to tackle the fields of digitization and internationalization together, a strategy must be developed. Where is the necessary money for investments without an investor supposed to come from? How should young people in particular be persuaded to pay for Bundesliga products?
“Significant further development only arises from a controversial discussion. That’s why we at FC Schalke 04 stand for not stopping the discourse now, but intensifying it,” said Schalke spokesman Bernd Schröder. Other clubs who had also rejected the deal made similar comments.
But there are also voices like that of Gladbach’s managing director Stephan Schippers: “A positive decision (on the investor deal; ed.) would have been a commitment to central marketing for the next 20 years, a commitment to 50+1, a commitment to the solidarity model between the first and second Bundesliga.” The reverse conclusion shows that the coming months will be just as exciting as they would have been in the possible concrete selection process for an investor.
question of principle?
It is possible, albeit unlikely, that the fundamental question will be asked as to what the DFL wants. A league that has a few clubs that can regularly reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League? Or a league in which eight clubs have the chance to become German champions?