Porsche is allowed to acquire shares in VfB Stuttgart for more than 40 million euros. The German Football League (DFL) approved the controversial deal.
As Sportschau learned from DFL circles, the Bundesliga club must sell additional shares “promptly” as a condition. This would then comply with the statutes, according to which no investor is allowed to hold more than ten percent of the shares in more than one club.
At first the trade magazine had “kicker” on Tuesday (January 23, 2024) reported that after the Cartel Office, the DFL Presidium also approved Porsche’s entry. When asked by Sportschau, the DFL announced that it could not officially confirm this. VfB wanted itself “don’t comment yet”.
More than a formality
The automobile manufacturer and VfB had already presented the business in outline terms in June 2023. It was announced that some hurdles needed to be removed, but that was a formality. The delay of more than half a year shows that this was a fallacy.
The case is also quite complicated. This starts with the question of whether Porsche AG is an independent company for the DFL or is part of the VW Group. With this condition, the DFL says that it counts Porsche as a car manufacturer from Wolfsburg that owns 100 percent of the Bundesliga club VfL based there.
According to the statutes, Porsche is not allowed to acquire the planned 10.4 percent of the shares in VfB. The DFL still allows it because it will only be 10.4 percent in the short term if the condition is implemented.
Share falls due to dilution
When the Swabians spun off their professional department into VfB Stuttgart 1893 AG in 2017, they stipulated that 24.9 percent of the shares could be sold to external investors. Around three percent should still be left after Porsche gets involved. If these were also sold, the shares of the other owners – apart from Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and supplier Jako – would be diluted. Porsche’s share of the company’s then higher capital thus falls to just under ten percent.
Problem Multi-Club Ownership
Multiple investments in professional clubs, also known as multi-club ownership, has become an increasingly important topic in football in recent years, not least because of the Red Bull Group, which has the say at several clubs, including the one from the United Arab Emirates-financed City Football Group, which includes Manchester City and FC Girona, is currently the surprise team in the Spanish La Liga.
The DFL statutes provide for a number of paragraphs that are intended to prevent the suspicion of distortions of competition from arising. The statutes state that only a participation of ten percent or more is permitted: “Regardless of the level of participation, no one may have a direct or indirect shareholding with capital or voting rights in more than three corporations in the licensed leagues.”
Protection for “VW clubs” through statutes
This also affects the case of Porsche and VfB Stuttgart, because Audi, another company from the VW Group, has a stake in FC Bayern Munich and FC Ingolstadt 04. Ingolstadt currently plays in the 3rd league. However, since the responsible German Football Association (DFB) has built the same hurdles against a possible violation of the integrity of the competition into its statutes for the 3rd league and counts participation from the DFL area, there appears to be a violation.
However, there is also the sentence in the statutes: “The restrictions according to sentences 1 and 2 do not apply to investments that were acquired before March 4, 2015.” This is the case with VW and Wolfsburg and Audi with Bavaria and Ingolstadt. These partnerships are therefore protected in this case.