Unterhaching’s Schwabl complains about the proportion of foreigners in the 3rd league

Criticism of playing time for talent

Manfred Schwabl, President of SpVgg Unterhaching, has called for more opportunities in the 3rd league for talents who are eligible to play for German national teams. “I believe that the proportion of foreigners is far too high,” said the ex-national player at a German Football Association press conference on Thursday, also with a view to the footballers who became U17 world champions with the DFB youth team in Indonesia in December .

“If we don’t bring them onto the pitch, then I really have to ask the question of what makes sense,” said Schwabl, who is also concerned about the high costs for the 20 third division clubs. “If we want to get personnel costs under control and be in the black, then the only way is through the funding pot,” said the 57-year-old. The amount that the DFB pays out through its youth funding pot has recently fallen from 2.95 million to 2.36 million euros. Basically, the third division clubs spend more money than they earn and have an average debt of more than 5 million euros.

In Schwabl’s opinion, the place is taken away from young talents “when middle-class players are overpaid.” He also emphasized that the 3rd league was originally considered a training league. The fact that only five percent of all players used in the third league for Germany are 16 to 20 year olds who are eligible to play is “simply a farce”. The DFB pointed out that the use of the money from the youth funding pot was no longer earmarked and therefore helped the clubs more. The goal is clearly to strengthen young talent.

The proportion of foreigners in the 3rd league is well below the Bundesliga and 2nd Bundesliga

To put it into perspective: With an average age of 23.9 years, Schwabl’s SpVgg has the fifth-youngest squad in the league behind promotion favorites Jahn Regensburg (23.7), Arminia Bielefeld (23.0) and the reserve teams of Borussia Dortmund and SC Freiburg (21 each). ,9). Three Unterhaching talents in the age group mentioned get playing time very regularly: Maurice Krattenmacher (18), the Swiss Aaron Keller (19) and Ben Westermeier (20). U17 world champion Konstantin Heide (18), for example, was on the field once when veteran René Vollath (33) was missing.

The 20 third division clubs employ 100 players whose first nationality is not Germany; with 566 players, this results in a rate of around 17.6 percent. This is well below the Bundesliga (48.8 percent) and the 2nd Bundesliga (35.6 percent). Among the ten most valuable players in the 3rd league, there is only one player over 24 years old, 27-year-old Ahmet Engin (700,000 euros) from MSV Duisburg. Of the 33 professionals with a market value of at least 500,000 euros, only six have none German passport. Freiburg II with 15 and 1860 Munich with 12 already represent around a quarter of all legionnaires in the 3rd league. This also includes players like Turkish U-international Berkay Yılmaz (18), who would also be eligible to play for the DFB. More than half of the clubs have fewer than five foreign players in their squad.

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