Dreesen and Mintzlaff elected to the ECA board

Bayern Munich’s Jan-Christian Dreesen and RB Leipzig’s Oliver Mintzlaff have been elected to the board of the powerful club association ECA. Bayer Leverkusen’s Fernando Carro also returned to the committee. Axel Hellmann from Eintracht Frankfurt is to receive an observer post on the board.

Dreesen and Mintzlaff were elected at the General Assembly of the European Club Association (ECA) on Thursday (September 7th, 2023) in Berlin. It was a partial vote for the current vacancies for representatives from the top six countries in the UEFA five-year ranking. The Bundesliga has a fundamental right to at least one person on the board.

A real election was no longer necessary after Valentina De Laurentiis (SSC Napoli) and John Textor (Olympique Lyon) withdrew their candidatures. As a result, there were seven candidates for seven places.

Mintzlaff fulfills the statutes for the ECA

Since moving to the management of Red Bull GmbH, Mintzlaff has only been chairman of the supervisory board at RB Leipzig. The ECA statutes actually require candidates to hold office in an executive role or to hold office as a board of directors or president. However, the ECA did not see this as an obstacle and allowed him to vote.

In the lower partial votes, Stephan Reiter from Red Bull Salzburg, another representative from the Red Bull environment, moved into the committee.

Joshua Wander, an investor at Hertha BSC and other clubs with his company 777 Partners, was elected to represent the Belgian club Standard Liège. However, he is one of the observer posts, so he has no voting rights.

Leverkusen’s Carro without a choice on the board

Bayer Leverkusen’s managing director Fernando Carro rejoined the board without being elected. The statutes stipulate that the board of directors appoints five of its members itself. These board members represent the ECA in a company that the ECA runs jointly with UEFA. One of these five members is Carro.

The joint venture “UEFA Club Competitions SA” organizes the marketing of the European Cup. The ECA occupies half of the seats on the board of directors. Officially, the ECA only has an advisory function there, so UEFA holds the decision-making power.

ECA with major impact on UEFA

The participation is seen by many as proof of the great influence of the ECA. Nasser Al-Khelaifi is President of Paris Saint Germain and CEO of the Qatari sports channel “beIN Sports”, which shows the Champions League. He is also ECA chairman and as such in 2022 he expressly praised the form of cooperation with UEFA in the tender for the TV rights from 2024.

“This process was much more than a call for tenders – it represents a tectonic shift in the clubs’ role in decision-making.” Revenue from UEFA’s three club competitions is expected to increase from €3.5 billion annually to between €4.6 billion and €5 billion from the 2024/25 season. The ECA also has a major say in how the money is distributed. The distribution has been changed more and more in favor of the top clubs in recent years, but there are currently at least concessions.

Also because of the distribution of money, smaller clubs had recently organized themselves into another representation, the Union of European Clubs, which currently does not enjoy official recognition from UEFA.

Kahn, Watzke and Rummenigge leave the ECA

Two officials from the Bundesliga had left the ECA board. Oliver Kahn automatically lost his ECA post when he was dismissed as CEO of Bayern Munich. After his election to the UEFA Executive Committee, Watzke announced that he would not remain on the ECA board.

When the Super League was founded in 2021, ECA honorary chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge briefly took second place in the ECA on the UEFA Executive Committee, alongside ECA chairman Al-Khelaifi. He will remain on this board until 2024, and his successor has now been appointed: Miguel Angel Gil Marin from Atletico Madrid.

Frankfurt’s Hellmann gets observer post

In the ECA, the Bundesliga, as one of the top 3 leagues in Europe, can nominate five clubs as full members of the ECA. Only these five Bundesliga clubs can send representatives to the ECA Board and only these five have voting rights at the General Assembly.

So far, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, RB Leipzig and VfL Wolfsburg have been these five members from the Bundesliga. However, Eintracht Frankfurt has now clearly outperformed VfL Wolfsburg in a four-year ranking used by the ECA and will be promoted to full and voting member status. However, Wolfsburg retains its status thanks to the successes of its women’s team. Eintracht Frankfurt’s board spokesman, Axel Hellmann, is also said to have an observer position on the ECA board.