The German Football League (DFL) has abandoned plans to bring in private investment to the Bundesliga’s media rights business following significant fan pressure.
Last December, 24 of the 36 clubs in the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 voted to permit the DFL to commence negotiations to sell an eight per cent stake in its media rights subsidiary.
This deal would have transformed German football with CVC Capital Partners, the only firm in talks with the league, claiming it would have been worth €1 billion ($1.66b AUD).
Following the vote in December, fan groups across the country have staged protests and disrupted games by throwing objects, such as tennis balls, onto the pitch.
The big sub-story to come out of this was the controversy surrounding Hannover 96 chief executive Martin Kind. Despite his team opposing the investment proposal, Kind is believed to have voted for the deal, which gave the DFL the two-thirds majority it needed to begin negotiations.
This has fuelled protests held over recent weeks, with supporter groups believing his vote goes against the ‘50+1 rule’ that gives fans’ 50 per cent of voting rights at German soccer clubs.
Borussia Dortmund CEO and speaker of the DFL executive committee Hans-Joachim Watzke, who was one of the biggest supporters of this external investment, acknowledged the significant division these talks caused.
“This was not limited to within the Ligaverband association between the clubs but also, in some cases, within the clubs themselves: between professional players, coaches, club officials, supervisory bodies, members assemblies and fan communities,” Watzke said in a DFL statement.
“That conflict is increasingly putting match operations, specific matches and thus the integrity of the competition at risk. The viability of a successful contract as regards to financing for the 36 clubs can therefore no longer be assured, given the circumstances.”
This isn’t the first time that the Bundesliga have tried to bring in an investor with the same exact idea floated last year that was swiftly voted down by clubs last year following another set of fan protests.
For the clubs in favour of the investment deal, such as Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, it will be interesting to see how they respond to this saga. They will be frustrated by being blocked effectively by so-called smaller teams, especially given it has become more difficult to challenge Premier League clubs who enjoy a significant wealth advantage.
Fans are adamant to not allow a replica of the Premier League ownership system which is marred by owners who have a very controversial reputation like Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) who recently took over Newcastle United.
This whole saga has proven the true strength of German football fans and the 50+1 ownership rule which has fan voting on top of the hierarchy when making important decisions like this for the Bundesliga.
