March 13, 2020 marked a turning point. The corona virus sent German professional football into a forced break, and on that day nobody knew how long it would last.
Until it continued a good two months later on the basis of the hygiene concept, which was respected worldwide, there was a lot to be said that the break also had to be used to pause and think. It was said that football had discovered humility, as this promise was heard everywhere.
Sunday, March 13, 2022. The Bundesliga has reached matchday 26 again, the sixth wave of the coronavirus is raging. Humility? pause? rethink?
“Personnel expenses increased significantly”
A few days earlier, Hertha BSC reported that the club had received around seven million euros in corona aid from the state. Everything OK. Requested, approved, paid. But morally it looks stupid when taxpayers subsidize a club whose investor Lars Windhorst never misses an opportunity to trumpet that he pumped almost 400 million euros into the club.
“Personnel expenses in the area of licensed gaming operations have increased significantly compared to the previous year.” This sentence comes from the consolidated financial statements of FC Bayern published a few days ago for a fiscal year that began on July 1, 2020.
In the case of new contracts that have been concluded in recent months with Joshua Kimmich and Kingsley Coman or are to be concluded with Serge Gnabry and Robert Lewandowski, one can only read about salary increases. The fact that FC Bayern keeps talking about a salary cap sounds like mockery.
Rethinking is only possible about the biggest beneficiaries
Of course, this development has to do with the greed of the players, often driven by windy consultants who babble about career plans and the next step. Clubs and associations, as little as they try to denounce this greed, are in a bind.
They need – as long as they are not supported by corporations by overextending the 50+1 rule – the sporting for the economic success. This forces them to push the envelope in committing or maintaining their most important asset.
80 euros for a test match
The increased personnel costs are not the only example. On March 26, the German national team will play for the first time in the year of the World Cup. In Sinsheim, against Israel. The DFB has long emphasized that it wants to win back the favor of the fans.
Oliver Bierhoff, the director responsible for the national teams at the DFB, has wanted to be careful not to “overtighten the screw” for years. What is the DFB doing? Sells tickets for 80 euros. Against Israel, in Sinsheim.
“Still no movement”
But it’s not just about money, it’s also about keeping your word. The “Future Professional Football Task Force” was launched with great fanfare. You should initiate the rethinking. The result was a commitment to sustainability, which is commendable.
Otherwise, it’s the willingness of those up there to keep talking to those down there in the stands. How gracious. “In many areas there is still no movement,” wrote a fan alliance on the task force’s interim report published a few weeks ago.
Enough of the talk of humility
In summary, two years after the start of the mandatory break, the corona pandemic is highly likely to neither lead football onto the path of humility nor eliminate the greed that exists among the biggest profiteers.
That’s as likely as a Hamburger SV championship in the next five years. It’s getting worse rather than better. So at least the talk of humility should stop.
After all, Donata Hopfen has already done so. In her first major interview, the new head of the DFL spoke in one sentence about the Supercup and Saudi Arabia. In the middle of the pandemic, in which she was also complaining about billions in losses.