Football: “Farmers League”? Bundesliga feels England’s transfer power

Vincent Kompany preferred to answer the question of the almost irresistible charm of the Premier League for football professionals in English – and only needed a single word. “Money,” said FC Bayern coach. With their huge financial power, the English clubs pumped several millions into the Bundesliga in this transfer summer – but also ensured a large sporting wreath.

Around the so -called “Deadline Day” on Monday, football Germany employed: Is the Bundesliga just a “Farmers League” – a kind of training league – for the Premier League? At least the club managers feel increasing powerlessness in the heated transfer market. England’s gigantic TV contract and the billion dollar marketing foreign marketing ensure an apparently unobstructible lead. The solutions are sometimes pragmatic, sometimes difficult to implement – and sometimes highly explosive.

“If a domino falls in England, I think that the domino is also falling over to Germany and that you actually have almost no chance as a club than to let the player go,” said Bayer Leverkusen sports manager Simon Rolfes at DAZN. He himself felt this several times this summer: led by Florian Wirtz (up to 150 million euros for FC Liverpool), almost half a starting eleven left the factory club towards England.

FC Bayern is also left behind

The list of the players changed by the Bundesliga to the Premier League is long and became even longer on the final day of the transfer window: Wirtz, Nick Woltemade, Granit Xhaka, Xavi Simons, Hugo Ekitiké, Jeremie Frimpong, Benjamin Sesko, Jamie Gitten, Marvin Duksch, Anton Stach and and and and.

Not even the big FC Bayern, who likes to refer to his full fixed deposit account, can still keep up. Or don’t want it. The desired players Wirtz and Woltemade (for up to 90 million euros to Newcastle United) are now playing in England instead of in Munich. “In the transfer period we had a lot of players who wanted to go to us, but where certain things were not possible because Bayern Munich would like to act very far -sighted financially,” said sports director Max Eberl.

Player river also in the other direction

Bavaria’s largest transfer is 70 million euro man Luis Díaz from Liverpool. Other Bundesliga clubs such as Borussia Dortmund also used the most bloated cadres of the English. But the truth also includes: Neither Díaz nor the new-Dortmund around Jobe Bellingham (from AFC Sunderland) are part of the absolute top category.

For the second offensive reinforcement, Bayern’s supervisory board around Uli Hoeneß even called for a loan for economic reasons – and made Eberl’s search difficult. According to “Transfermarkt.de”, 17 out of 20 Premier League clubs had spent more money before the last day of transfer than Bavaria (around 72 million euros).

The discrepancy increases significantly

It has been a reality for years that the most sought -after players follow the calling of money and switch to England. Only the French Champions League winner Paris St. Germain and Spain’s Top Club Real Madrid, which is financially alimented with Qatar, can still keep up. The financially stricken FC Barcelona no longer.

But what strikes even more this year: Even smaller English clubs have better chances on the transfer market than elsewhere clubs with European Cup ambitions. “As a promoted in the Premier League, you have a budget that the Top 8 or even Top 6 can keep up in the Bundesliga,” said Kompany, who led FC Burnley to the English football upper house in 2023: “You will suddenly get TV income of 100 million-and that as a promoted man.” The Bayern coach suggested “a debate” of the entire Bundesliga how to remain “competitive”.

That a lot of money takes from England and invest cleverly – that is the most extensive opinion in this country. “The development of the Bundesliga will depend on how many top players we train ourselves,” said Rolfes: “This is the key factor to compensate for the economic advantage of the Premier League.” VfB Stuttgarts CEO Alexander Wehrle called for an even greater “professionalization of the young talent centers”. The Bundesliga recently campaigned on Instagram by chance with the saying “Where diamonds arise”.

Upper limits – or abolition of 50+1?

Axel Hellmann goes one step further and demands regulatory measures in Europe “which narrow this madness a bit”. The board spokesman for Eintracht Frankfurt brought the cap -show and player salaries into conversation in the “Sky90” talk show “Sky90”. The Salary Cap, who is tried and tested in North American professional sports, is even “unavoidable” in view, said DFL supervisory board chief Hans-Joachim Watzke of the “Frankfurter Rundschau”: “Without a salary limit, all of this is even more out of hand. At some point, you will also notice this in England.

After the investor deal has failed as a result of violent protests, the German Football League (DFL) is increasingly looking for additional income. “We Germans slept a bit. The German likes to braise in their own juice,” said Watzke.

But it is clear that a few million euros more when marketing at home and abroad will not close the gap to the Premier League. Only the break with the “50+1” rule, which essentially prevents a majority of investors in the corporations of clubs, would be a real gamuchanger. The voices for abolition become louder, most recently Uli Hoeneß also advocated it again. However, the active fan scene would run against it, and Watzke is (still) “not ready to sacrifice 50+1 for it”.