The German Football League (DFL) wants to take in up to two billion euros through the entry of an investor. The 36 Bundesliga clubs are to vote on the financing model next week. Second division FC St. Pauli is now opposed to the plans.
According to NDR information, the club will apply for a postponement of the DFL decision – at least until the ordinary general meeting in August. According to club president Oke Göttlich, he cannot agree to the current plans. The 47-year-old is particularly bothered by the fact that one of the most far-reaching decisions in Bundesliga history is to be carried out in a hasty process.
Even as a member of the DFL Executive Committee, he received no answers to many fundamental questions. A common strategy is missing. He called for more time and more detailed information to also discuss alternative models. The process is not entirely transparent.
The DFL wants to sell 12.5 percent of the shares in a subsidiary that has yet to be founded, to which the media rights will be outsourced, to an investor over 20 years. This should bring in two billion euros. There are four investors to choose from, for the deal to come about, at least 24 of the 36 Bundesliga clubs would have to agree (two-thirds majority).
Vote next Wednesday
The vote on the desired investor model is already due next Wednesday – and thus also on the question of whether concrete negotiations will be started with a potential partner. At another meeting in July, there should then be the green light for the selected investor.
Göttlich sees current DFL plans critically
Göttlich takes a critical view of the current plans. For FC St. Pauli, an investor’s entry into the DFL is only up for debate “if it is very, very, very clear what will happen to the money and that it will not continue to be distributed unequally to the same extent as before – and so that the competition is destroyed,” said the St. Pauli President in February at the NDR Sportclub. This would make the Bundesliga even more boring.
This topic in the program:
NDR 90.3 | Sports | 05/17/2023 | 13:00 ‘O clock