The entry of an investor in the German Football League (DFL) is approaching, the DFL has taken another step in this direction.
According to DFL information, it was unanimously decided at a joint meeting of the Executive Committee and the Supervisory Board that “The process of strategic partnership at league level continues”.
The cornerstones of a possible investor partnership are to be presented to the 36 professional clubs for decision at an extraordinary DFL general meeting on May 24th. If a two-thirds majority – i.e. at least 24 of the 36 professional clubs – voted in favor of entry at the end of May, the next step would be to outsource national and international media rights to a subsidiary called “DFL MediaCo GmbH & Co. KGaA”. The investor could then acquire at least 12.5 percent of the new company for a term of 20 to 30 years.
Deal should bring two to three billion euros
In accordance with the deadline, so-called indicative offers from several interested parties were received by the league on Monday. The interested parties should exclusively be private equity firms. As a result, the capital provided cannot be traded on the stock exchange. The Executive Committee and the Supervisory Board were presented with “the first economic cornerstones of the offers”. In addition, evaluation and selection criteria were defined in order to reduce the group of interested parties to three.
The DFL primarily expects a lot of money from an investor. The deal is expected to bring in around two to three billion euros. The overall concept is to be presented to the 36 professional clubs at two informational meetings in May and approved with their suggestions. The clubs should then decide at their general meeting whether, based on the concept and the selected offers, they should enter the next phase of the process and further negotiations with individual interested parties.