Voting in Frankfurt: Decision day for DFL – clubs vote on investor

Today the clubs in the Bundesliga and the 2nd Bundesliga are voting on whether the DFL should promote its marketing with an investor in the future. The general meeting begins at 11 a.m.

Representatives of the 36 clubs meet in a hotel at Frankfurt Airport to make the groundbreaking decision. The Presidium and the Supervisory Board have submitted a request that the two DFL managing directors Marc Lenz and Steffen Merkel should negotiate with potential investors and then submit a final offer to the Presidium.

Essentially, the DFL wants to further develop its business model and needs money for the necessary digitalization and internationalization measures. There is broad agreement among the clubs that this is the right thing to do – the clubs and the DFL are less agreed on the question of whether an investor should be brought in for this.

Both camps still lack votes

For the application to be accepted, 24 yes votes are required, i.e. a two-thirds majority among the 36 clubs. An abstention therefore has the same effect as a no vote. Before the vote, the camps are divided as follows based on interviews, club communications and a Kicker survey:

So far, 16 clubs have publicly expressed their support for an investor: Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig, TSG Hoffenheim, Bayer Leverkusen, 1. FC Heidenheim, VfL Wolfsburg, Borussia Dortmund, Werder Bremen, Eintracht Frankfurt, Borussia Mönchengladbach, VfB Stuttgart, VfL Bochum, SC Paderborn, Hannover 96, SpVgg Greuther Fürth and Schalke 04 .

Four clubs announced their rejection before the meeting: 1. FC Cologne, SC Freiburg, FC St. Pauli.

Wants to abstain: VfL Osnabruck.

There is uncertainty regarding: 1. FC Union Berlin (criticizes the application as wrong, calls for a postponement, but does not mention voting behavior), Hannover 96 (managing director Martin Kind is actually in favor, but the parent club of the spun-off KGaA asked managing director Martin Kind to vote “no”. ).

The following have not yet commented publicly on voting behavior: FC Augsburg, Darmstadt 98, Mainz 05, Hertha BSC, Eintracht Braunschweig, Fortuna Düsseldorf, SV Elversberg, Hamburger SV, 1. FC Kaiserslautern, Karlsruher SC, Holstein Kiel, 1. FC Magdeburg, 1. FC Nürnberg, Hansa Rostock, SV Wehen Wiesbaden.

DFL wants a billion – but has to give up money for 20 years

The general conditions for possible investor entry:

The supporters of the investor entry hope that the partner with money as well as a network and knowledge will improve the marketing of the Bundesliga and the 2nd Bundesliga and thus increase income. With the permanent deduction of eight percent of revenue, the DFL would have to rely on an increase in revenue overall to offset the obligation to the investor.

The concern of many critics: Will the “red lines” promised by the two DFL managing directors Lenz and Merkel hold? According to the DFL, the investor should have no influence on the design of the game plan, should not be able to move games abroad against the wishes of the clubs or introduce playoffs in the Bundesliga. All of this remains in the hands of the clubs and the DFL, says the management. However, 1. FC Cologne and many active fan scenes criticize that private equity companies, with their high return expectations, could at least have indirect influence.

decision with Potential for division

There is opposition from the 2nd Bundesliga when it comes to the failed deal in May. Bayer Leverkusen’s managing director had already indirectly threatened to split off the Bundesliga from the 2nd Bundesliga.

Even if this is difficult to implement organizationally, other points of contention could arise, such as power relations in the committees, the weighting of voting rights or the distribution of money.