Werder Bremen’s managing director Klaus Filbry has questioned the DFL’s compromise with the Federal Cartel Office on the 50+1 rule. A new discussion about how big the concession from Leverkusen and Wolfsburg really is is imminent.
“You have to look closely at whether the proposal really promotes competitive integrity”Filbry told the portal “Deichstube”. “I would put a question mark on that.”
In 2021, the Bundeskartellamt had classified the 50+1 rule as fundamentally harmless in a preliminary assessment, but criticized, among other things, the applicable exemptions for three clubs.
A compromise sees new ones restrictions for clubs with exceptions
These exceptions apply to TSG Hoffenheim with majority owner Dietmar Hopp and the clubs Bayer Leverkusen and VfL Wolfsburg, which are managed by the Bayer and Volkswagen groups. Hopp has announced that he will return his shares, which means that Hoffenheim could officially comply with the 50+1 rule again.
Criticizes the motion to adapt the 50+1 rule: Klaus Filbry.
With reference to Leverkusen and Wolfsburg, the DFL had submitted a compromise proposal to the Federal Cartel Office. The key points:
- The granting of further exceptions to the 50+1 rule should be ruled out.
- In the case of clubs with exceptions, the representation of a parent club in the bodies of the outsourced corporations would have to be ensured in future.
- According to the proposal, logos, colors and location should not be changed easily.
- So far, the two groups have each compensated for the losses of their football GmbH. In the future, a fine will be imposed if this loss compensation is more than 7.5 percent of the income.
Penalty payment for a million illegal subsidy: 50,000 euros
Wolfsburg’s managing director Tim Schumacher had in the NDR in the agreement of a “viable solution” spoken, Leverkusen’s managing director Fernando Carro called the compromise at the time “partially painful”, which his club agreed to anyway. Former DFL managing director Andreas Rettig sees it differently. “So far, that has in no way compensated for the competitive advantages of the exceptional clubs.”he criticized in the sports show.
Former DFL Managing Director Andreas Rettig: “That doesn’t compensate for the competitive advantages.”
The background to the criticism is the fines mentioned, which do not spread much terror in the event of violations. Should Leverkusen or Wolfsburg generate 200 million euros in income, 7.5 percent (15 million euros) compensation payments would be possible. If a group also compensates for losses, fines are paid.
This “luxury tax” is calculated using the relevant 12-month Euribor interest rate plus one percentage point. In concrete terms, this means that if a group pays an additional million euros when the interest rate is currently 4 percent, the majority owner has to pay a 5 percent penalty – in the example mentioned, 50,000 euros.
Two-thirds majority required in the DFL
The Bundeskartellamt has already announced that it intends to “declare the changes to the DFL’s statutes to be binding”. In the DFL, however, these changes to the statutes require a two-thirds majority at a general meeting of the 36 clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2nd Bundesliga, as the DFL announced.
“We will evaluate this internally and then decide how we will deal with the proposal”, Filbry said. He did not want to submit a counter-proposal, Filbry said on “Deichstube”. “There are committees and the executive committee for that in the DFL.” He hopes that the discussion will be re-launched.
violations in Licensing Procedure: Bremen should pay a fine of 1.8 million
The reason for Filbry’s criticism was a fine imposed by the DFL against Werder Bremen. The Bremen company should pay 1.8 million euros because they violated capital requirements in the licensing process. According to Filbry, Werder have appealed. In this context, Filbry referred to the possibility for clubs to receive compensation payments from their owners without the 50+1 rule.