The planned entry of an investor in the German Football League has burst!
A motion to this effect did not receive the required two-thirds majority among the first and second division teams at the eagerly awaited extraordinary general meeting of the league on Wednesday in Frankfurt am Main. The DFL had promised fresh capital of around two billion euros from a possible deal. Crashing defeat for the DFL management Oliver Leki, who had previously campaigned for broad approval. In the organized fan scene, however, there has been a lot of resistance for months. “So the topic is over as of today!” Numerous clubs have now overturned their plans. Accordingly, there were eleven no votes and five abstentions among the 36 clubs. “Sometimes life is simple. That is democracy,” said Watzke. “There was a clear majority, but not the one we wanted. So the topic is over as of today.” The money should be used in particular to strengthen the overall marketing of the Bundesliga, primarily abroad. A fixed amount was also earmarked to finance local infrastructure projects for the 36 professional clubs. In addition, the clubs should receive around 300 million euros at their free disposal. Of the six interested parties, three were left. The DFL plan stipulated that the national and international media rights should be outsourced to a subsidiary called DFL MediaCo GmbH & Co. KGaA. A potential investor, three of whom were originally interested, was to acquire 12.5 percent of the new company for a period of 20 years. Critics had pointed out that a potential partner would not be satisfied with the role of spectator become. In an open letter, the board of directors of 1. FC Köln warned against a deal with an investment company: “A private equity investor will always demand certain rights of co-determination in order to protect and actively increase the return on his investment.” complains that the DFL is accessing future revenue that the clubs would lack in ten to 20 years. “New dimension of profit orientation prevented!” “That’s very good news. The commercialization of football is not reversed, but a new dimension of profit orientation is successfully prevented,” said Jorim Gerrard from the citizens’ movement “Finanzwende”.
