DFL elections: mood test also with a view of 50+1

The Presidium and the Supervisory Board are re -elected at the DFL. The occupation of the committees is also relevant for the future of the 50+1 rule. Some personal details have potential for conflict.

The representatives of the 18 Bundesliga clubs and the 18 second division team meet on Wednesday (03.09.2025) in a Berlin hotel for the DFL general assembly, which begins at 10.30 a.m. The most important part: The DFL will largely determine the composition of its bodies.

What happens to the DFL general assembly?

The elections are about posts in the Presidium of the DFL EV and on the Supervisory Board of DFL GmbH. The officials in these offices shape the alignment of the DFL and thus German professional football. The two bodies have important tasks: the Presidium, for example, decides to distribute the money from the media contracts. The Supervisory Board controls DFL GmbH and its management with Marc Lenz and Steffen Merkel.

In addition to the elections, speeches can also be revealing – if the executives of German football, for example, declare themselves the location of the 50+1 rule. DFB President Bernd Neuendorf in a greeting at the latest general assembly 2022 for the preservation of 50+1 said: “A purely capital -driven Event Would make the Bundesliga a game ball of the investors. “ That is “Neither desirable nor conveyable”. The topic 50+1 is 2025 is more up to date than ever.

What is the meaning of the General assembly for 50+1?

The Bundeskartellamt has recommended the DFL to abolish the exceptions from the rule for VfL Wolfsburg and Bayer 04 Leverkusen for legal certainty of the 50+1 rule. If the DFL does not do so, the rule is in danger in contrast. When dealing with 50+1 in the coming months and years, the composition of the DFL committees is also important.

The DFL Presidium under the leadership of Borussia Dortmund’s managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke had emphasized that it was “unanimously” at 50+1. “The DFL Presidium will continue to work for the protection and continued existence of the 50+1 rule”At that time it was also said. When inserting for the rule, there are now some questions in the room after the Federal Cartel Office’s statement:

The newly selected DFL bodies will have to deal with these questions.

What will be important for the DFL GmbH supervisory board?

Four places will be awarded on the Supervisory Board. A focus on 50+1 applies to the candidacy of Fernando Carro, managing director of Bayer 04 Leverkusen. If Carro is elected to the Supervisory Board, a representative of the two exceptional clubs would be part of the DFL bodies. Leverkusen and also VfL Wolfsburg have expressly “Reserved legal steps”.

This does not necessarily have to be a declaration of war, because these clubs may face such statements with a view to liability issues to the shareholders of their corporations. Leverkusen’s managing director, however, repeatedly criticized the 50+1 rule and suggested abolition. In the later failed investor process, he also brought the Bundesliga to play from the 2nd Bundesliga, and both leagues are currently being marketed by the DFL together.

Carro has become one of the most important officials in German football behind Borussia Dortmund’s managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke. He also has a great influence in the UEFA and the powerful club association ECA and could now also strengthen his position in the DFL. Most recently, Carro in the DFL Presidium had the previous Bayern representative Michael Diederich and hopes in return for approval in the election for the DFL supervisory board.

Who else is for election to the Supervisory Board?

There are three competitors for Carro: Eric Huwer (Hamburger SV), Michael Ströll (FC Augsburg) and Philipp Türoff (1. FC Köln) are also running. In this election, only the 18 Bundesliga clubs are allowed to vote. If Carro does not win here, he would have a second chance afterwards: Because later two other supervisory board will be awarded, all 36 clubs of the DFL. Huwer, Ströll and Türoff have also been set up here. Anne Baumann (SV Darmstadt 98) and incumbent Ralf Huschen (Hertha BSC) are also included – all 36 clubs coordinate here. The second division clubs also determine another representative on the supervisory board.

The continued existence of 50+1 does not depend on approval or rejection of the person Carro in the election to the supervisory board. But the past shows that such elections can at least be a mood test. In 2023, the then Cologne managing director Christian Keller prevailed against Braus Filbry in the election of the supervisory board – this was considered a finger for the investor deal of the DFL, which was largely rejected by the clubs in May 2023, was critical of the basement.

Who is available in the Presidium of the DFL EV?

Seven places will be re -awarded in the Presidium. In three places, all 36 clubs coordinate, with two of the four other posts, only the first or second division clubs are entitled to vote. Some officials compete without opposing candidates:

According to the previous status, there are real elections in the area of ​​the 2nd Bundesliga:

In the “kicker” Göttlich said now: “The club representatives at the partial assembly of the 2nd league must decide to what extent the candidates in the past campaigned for the cohesion of the 2nd league and the interests of small and medium -sized clubs and sometimes represented this in the headwind of the mighty clubs.”

At the actual time of the election, however, the field can look different: Candidates often withdraw their application before the election after trial votes or agreements.

What are the discussions about 50+1?

In the background, the supporters of the 50+1 rule also avoid hard tones to enforce 50+1, the search for a community solution is running. “We have to try to bring things into an agreement that I still don’t know what it can look like today”said Eintracht Frankfurt’s spokesman Axel Hellmann in the “Kicker” and also referred to Leverkusens Carro. “There is only a common solution if we also involve those that we need for a mutual solution. That is why I also considered it helpful if Fernando Carro were a member of the committees”so Hellmann.

In 2023 there was initially a joint solution. At that time, the DFL and antitrust office had found a compromise, which was never finally decided. The agreement provided for a luxury tax for the exceptional clubs, a strongly limited membership participation and the deletion of future exceptions.

This is no longer enough for the Federal Cartel Office, it recommends the abolition of the exceptions. Can the compromise be redesigned? “The Bundeskartellamt has given a lower limit: the majority of voting rights will have to be with a membership -determined mother club at every club” in the future “says Alexander Scheuch, sports lawyer from the University of Bonn, in conversation with the sports show. “Grinding the old compromise is not enough.”

Leverkusen and Wolfsburg would therefore have to transfer more than 50 percent voting rights to corresponding regular associations, which it is with VfL Wolfsburg e. V. and TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen e. V. basically gives at both locations. Cartelamts President Andreas Mundt told the sports show: “It is at the clubs and the DFL to get something here that corresponds to competition law.”

What threatens if DFL and clubs cannot find a solution?

A long legal discussion could be the result, anyway, the lawsuit remains an option for the clubs concerned. “But he doesn’t have to be an inevitable consequence”says sports law. “The clubs have to rate this as right or wrong.”

In addition, conflicts are threatened in the stadiums. The alliance “Fan scenes in Germany” significantly shaped the protests against the later failed investor entry to the DFL. At the weekend of the 1st main round in the DFB Cup – a week and a half before the DFL general assembly – many groups showed banners with the inscription: “DFL and clubs: We have in mind – 50+1 implement without exception!” The wording “We have an eye on you” was also used by the scenes in front of the protests presented with tennis balls and other means against the investor deal in 2024.

It is a clear reference. In a message from the “fan scenes of Germany” it was said that the rule should be protected by all means. “The affected clubs must at short notice to adapt their form of society and organization in the sense of the 50+1 rule or leave from organized football.” The expectations of the newly elected bodies of the DFL are therefore clear, at least among the organized fan scenes.