Cartel office asks DFL for improvements in the 50+1 rule

It’s all about the factory clubs

Cartel office puts DFL under pressure

An end is in sight in the long -term legal clarification of exemptions in German professional football. Before that, the DFL and some clubs have to improve.

The focus is still on the 50+1 rule in the Bundesliga. Although the Federal Cartel Office has no fundamental objections to the investor brake in German professional football, the authority sees need for improvement. In a preliminary evaluation published on Monday, the cartel office refers to legal risks – especially with regard to exemptions and different handling for certain clubs.

The DFL is well advised to specify the application of the rule in order to make its future legally secure. Specifically, it is about special cases such as Bayer Leverkusen and VfL Wolfsburg, the membership structure at RB Leipzig as well as internal issues at Hannover 96. The DFL Presidium wants to quickly deal with the recommendations and develop a compromise proposal that is majority under the 36 professional clubs.

Cartel office president Andreas Mundt said: “In our opinion, the DFL must ensure uniform competitive conditions and therefore use the 50+1 rule without discrimination and consistently.” He called three central points: First, access to membership must be open to all clubs in the Bundesliga and 2nd Bundesliga to ensure fan participation. Especially at RB Leipzig it was questioned whether the e. V. there is “sufficiently open” for voting new members.

Second, the principles of the 50+1 rule would also have to apply to internal coordination. The hanging here is the conflict about the voting behavior of the then Hannover 96 managing director Martin Kind at the DFL investor deal.

Thirdly, a revision of the existing protection rules for former funding clubs is necessary, since the European case law is now incorporating stricter standards. This affects the Bayer Leverkusen and VfL Wolfsburg factory clubs.

The DFL, clubs and investors now have the opportunity to comment. After that, the Federal Cartel Office wants to finally formulate the recommendations and end the procedure. Mundt made it clear: “We do not carry out a procedure against the DFL. The DFL has approached us with the request to receive a well -founded assessment of this difficult sports cartel law question.” The implementation of the information is solely with the DFL.

At the core of the 50+1 rule it says that the mother club always has to keep the majority of votes in a outsourced professional department. The test process of the cartel office goes back to an initiative of the DFL from July 2018. In March 2023, the league submitted additional commitment commitments to enable a final evaluation.