The DFL investor deal is off the table. Stefan Effenberg hopes that the end is not just lip service. He now sees financial challenges facing the clubs.
It has been clear since Wednesday afternoon: There will be no investor entry into the German Football League (DFL). After weeks of nationwide fan protests in the stadiums, the league held a crisis meeting. Result: The presidium led by spokesman Hans-Joachim Watzke voted “unanimously” to break off the talks with CVC. The financial company from Luxembourg was the last remaining potential financier to get involved. The DFL’s second attempt to attract investors also failed.
Stefan Effenberg hopes that the decision against an investor will now be permanent. In an interview with t-online, the 53-year-old said: “If the DFL has now recognized that it is making the decision like this, then hopefully it will have an exclamation mark and not a question mark. Not that we will have one again in five weeks hear another story.”
Effenberg: “Excited to see how the clubs want to deal with this”
The t-online columnist makes it clear: “It can’t be the case that this is just to keep the fans quiet so that games can be played in peace again. And in the end the negotiations continue. It’s also about credibility those responsible.”
With the failed deal, the league is missing out on revenue of up to one billion euros. For the money, an investor would have received six to eight percent of the shares of a DFL subsidiary, to which all media rights would have been outsourced, for 20 years. Effenberg: “I’m curious to see how the clubs want to deal with this. This means that player salaries, for example, will almost inevitably have to go in a different direction.”
Effenberg: “I don’t see that the DFL has given in”
The ex-Bayern professional continued: “The billion would certainly have flowed into many areas. But if the clubs don’t receive any money now, the player contracts may also have to be adjusted in the future, back into a more normal framework.”
However, Effenberg does not see the termination of the investor negotiations as a snub to the fans: “I still don’t see that the DFL has given in. They will have analyzed everything sensibly and have now come to this decision. I hope that they will then really stick with it. And you don’t just want to finish the season in peace. That would be bad.”
Watzke had recently assured this: “We will not pursue this issue with a partner who invests in a subsidiary or something like that.”