The DFL clubs will vote on December 11th on whether to bring an investor on board. The DFL should not rely on the support of SC Freiburg.
In a letter to the club members, which was available to Sportschau, SC Freiburg said that it had taken note of the model revised by the German Football League. It leads to “a changed assessment of SC Freiburg”.
When the DFL first made its move in May, SC Freiburg was among those in favor of investors getting involved. At that time, however, the necessary two-thirds majority was not achieved. The new model provides for a significantly lower amount for an investor to get involved. Accordingly, this time a financier should bring 800 million to one billion euros instead of two billion as the original model had envisaged.
Tim Brockmeier, Sportschau, November 14, 2023 8:56 p.m
They find too little in Freiburg. The club wrote: “If investments can be made on our own, this is always preferable to involving a third party. We will consistently represent this position.” This attitude is entirely in the spirit of many Freiburg supporters. When SCF played 1-1 against SV Darmstadt in the Bundesliga in their own stadium on Saturday (November 25th, 23), there was a large banner hanging in the fan block. It said: “It remains: No to investors.”
In mid-November, a majority of the Presidium and Supervisory Board of the DFL decided that a new version of the investor deal would be discussed at the general meeting of the 36 Bundesliga and 2nd Bundesliga clubs on December 11th “strategic marketing partnership” is coordinated.
Hope for a billion euros
The slimmed-down version, which the clubs will decide on in December, has a term of 20 years. There should be no permanent sale of shares. The sports show learned this from club circles. According to information from Sportschau, the DFL’s expected consideration of between 800 million and one billion euros would not be paid out in one fell swoop, but in installments.
Around 60 percent of income from this new deal would go to joint digitalization projects and no longer to the day-to-day business of the clubs, as the first version of the plan had envisaged. Around 30 percent is now planned to offset the payments due to the investor after completion for at least five years. Otherwise the clubs would initially be missing this money.
The remaining ten percent are intended to fill a pot with which the DFL wants to promote foreign activities such as club friendly games in order to increase the previously relatively low foreign revenues.
The first attempt also failed due to an investor’s right to veto
In the last attempt on May 24th, the necessary two-thirds majority was not found among the 36 clubs. At that time, 20 clubs voted in favor, eleven against and five abstained. It was a business with a 12.5 percent profit share, also over 20 years. An investor should pay up to two billion euros for this.
The league was divided on the investor issue, also because only a third of the money should go to projects that benefit the community. A large part would have gone directly to the clubs, but not in equal shares. Bayern, for example, would have received a multiple of what Holstein Kiel would have received, for example. Some clubs took issue with this, as did the investor’s right to veto certain decisions, which was revealed by Sportschau.