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DFL: Bundesliga clubs vote against controversial investor entry

DFL: Bundesliga clubs vote against controversial investor entry

The German Football League wants to generate fresh capital through an investor. But after resistance from the fan scene, numerous clubs voted against it and overturned the plan.

The planned entry of an investor in a new subsidiary of the German Football League is off the table. At the eagerly awaited extraordinary general meeting in Frankfurt am Main, a corresponding motion did not receive the required two-thirds majority among the 36 first and second division clubs, as participants reported after the end of the meeting. Accordingly, there were eleven no votes and five abstentions.

resistance for months

The result of the vote is a crushing defeat for the DFL leadership around the chairman of the supervisory board, Hans-Joachim Watzke, and the interim managing directors, Axel Hellmann and Oliver Leki, who had campaigned in advance for broad approval. The DFL had promised fresh capital of around two billion euros from the deal. In the organized fan scene there has been great resistance to the plans for months.

In particular, the money should be used to strengthen the overall marketing of the Bundesliga, primarily abroad. A fixed amount was also earmarked to finance local infrastructure projects for the 36 professional clubs. In addition, the clubs should receive around 300 million euros at their disposal.

The DFL plan stipulated that the national and international media rights should be outsourced to a subsidiary called DFL MediaCo GmbH & Co. KGaA. A potential investor, three of the original six interested parties remaining, was then to acquire 12.5 percent of the new company for a period of 20 years.

This plan is now obsolete because it did not find enough supporters at the meeting in a Frankfurt airport hotel. In the weeks leading up to the general meeting, resistance had already been stirred up among the associations.

Investor not satisfied with role?

Critics had pointed out that a possible partner would not be satisfied with the role of spectator. In an open letter, the board of directors of 1. FC Köln warned against a deal with an investment company: “A private equity investor will always demand certain rights of co-determination in order to protect and actively increase the return on his investment.” In addition, it was criticized that the DFL was accessing future revenues that the clubs would lack in ten to 20 years.

Source: Stern

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