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In the dispute with the DFL, the streaming service DAZN wants to drive a wedge into the league. Former DFL boss Christian Seifert is brought into play as an arbitrator. He points out that this doesn’t work.
Frankfurt – The dispute between the streaming service DAZN and the German Football League (DFL) is turning into a real mud fight. At the weekend, the stubborn internet sports broadcaster sent an email to all 36 licensed clubs in which it accused the DFL of “slander”, which DAZN would have to “vehemently contradict”. The thrust of the letter is obvious: DAZN wants to drive a wedge between the DFL management, with Steffen Merkel and Marc Lenz at the top, and the licensed clubs. That’s how FR learned from presidential circles, but so far it has not been successful.
DAZN only transfers funds later and then blames the DFL
The sender states in the email that the Frankfurter Rundschau is available, openly admits that he asked the DFL in February 2024 that the contractually agreed payments for March and April should not be made until December. So more than half a year later, apparently due to liquidity problems.
The DFL management “explicitly agreed to the new conditions voluntarily and by mutual agreement”, but then, from DAZN’s point of view, did not adequately protect the clubs: Because, according to DAZN: “With the approval of this agreement, the responsibility was to ensure interim financing for the member clubs DFL. The fact that the financing for the clubs was obviously not adequately secured by the DFL also came as a huge surprise to DAZN.”
Suggested as mediator: former DFL managing director Christian Seifert. © imago images/Eibner
Bundesliga clubs must initially forego TV money
This is cheekily worded and sounds suspiciously like the “Schwarz Peter principle”. Has DAZN done itself a favor with this? Rather not. Because there is no doubt what had not previously been publicly confirmed in writing: There is no longer any doubt that DAZN postponed payment deadlines into the future and did not pay on time as originally agreed.
After FR-Information this wasn’t the first time this happened. The Bundesliga clubs therefore do not receive the originally planned June payments from DAZN from the DFL. In most cases, the clubs have to compensate for the million-dollar losses (around three million euros for a middle-class first division club), which were firmly planned and now only come at the end of the year, through bank loans.
Against this background, it seems understandable that the DFL, which met on Sunday FR-The streaming service did not want to comment on the request and had demanded a reliable bank guarantee from the streaming service for the sale of significant future media rights for Friday and Saturday live games for the 2025 to 2029 season. Because DAZN did not submit this at the required time, according to the DFL, Sky came into play. DAZN writes that they have made an offer to the DFL that is “probably at least 320 million euros higher”. The DFL “overlooked our apparently significantly higher bid without exercising the necessary care.”
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Mediator Seifert is supposed to settle the dispute between DAZN and DFL
You can also look at it another way: The DFL may have made sure, for understandable reasons, that the long-standing, reliable Bundesliga partner Sky is not completely pushed out of the German market by DAZN, as has already happened in the Champions League has happened.
Meanwhile, ex-official Wolfgang Holzhäuser im Deutschlandfunk the former DFL managing director Christian Seifert as a mediator for the escalating dispute. But right now it looks suspiciously as if the tablecloth between the DFL and DAZN is not only torn, but downright torn. Without it, Seifert points out that Holzhäuser’s plan cannot be implemented. “I am honored by the proposal to act as a mediator between the DFL and DAZN,” said Seifert. “However, the procedure is set out in great detail from the tendering of the packages through the bidding phase to the award and is based on a commitment made by the DFL to the Federal Cartel Office. There is no provision for a mediation process.”
The case will be heard in arbitration proceedings from Tuesday. “In view of the situation that has arisen in the last few weeks, this can also be a sensible measure in the interests of everyone involved,” says the experienced Seifert.
This can take several months. A further even remotely trusting collaboration between the DFL and DAZN seems impossible at this point in time…