Bundesliga
“They will all jump ship” – DFL Presidium discusses investor deal
It wasn’t just in Hanover that fans protested: “No to investors in the DFL” is written on a poster on the fence in front of the Hannover 96 supporters. Majority shareholder Martin Kind is certain that the hotly debated sponsorship deal will fall through
© Swen Pförtner / DPA
The planned entry of an investor into the German Football League is meeting with increasing resistance. The DFL executive committee is coming under increasing pressure.
The increasing protests and calls for a new vote could disrupt the planned entry of a billion-dollar investor into the Let the German football league fail after all. According to DPA information, the DFL Presidium wants to take a closer look at the ongoing investor process again this week. The next steps in the controversial case, which has been hotly debated for weeks, will be discussed.
Martin Kind: “They will all jump out”
Martin Kind, majority shareholder of Hannover 96, who played a key role in initiating the deal at the general meeting on December 11th last year, no longer believes that the ongoing negotiations with a strategic partner will be successfully concluded. “They will all drop out,” predicted Kind in an interview broadcast on NDR’s “Sportclub” on Sunday evening.
But even if the only remaining candidate, CVC, maintains his offer, the outcome of a new vote now appears completely open. Because the headwind for the DFL is increasing not only from the fans, but also from within its own ranks. A number of clubs have recently called for a new vote, which DFL executive committee spokesman and supervisory board chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke no longer wants to ignore as a clear supporter of the deal, according to information from the “Frankfurter Rundschau”.
However, the DFL had not yet received an official request to release the DFL Executive Board from the final discretion granted at the general meeting with the necessary two-thirds majority on Monday morning. The umbrella organization of German professional football announced this in response to a DPA request.
1. FC Köln had announced such a request and discussed its motives in a letter to the DFL. “Under no circumstances should the current fan protests continue in the long term or even increase,” the “Frankfurter Rundschau” quoted from the letter on Monday. With a new debate between all clubs and their own members and fans as well as a new vote, “German professional football would document respect and greatness through this solidarity with its base.”
Billion dollar deal: DFL wants investor to share in TV revenues
The DFL wants to collect one billion euros from a financial investor for a percentage share of the TV revenue. When the 36 professional clubs voted on the deal, the necessary two-thirds majority was only barely achieved. Due to the controversial role of Hanover shareholder Kind, there is suspicion that the vote could have violated the 50+1 rule.
Hanover’s club management had instructed Kind to vote against the investor’s entry. However, the voting results and the public confessions of those opposing the proposal suggest that the 79-year-old voted yes and thus helped the DFL plan gain the necessary majority. Child himself does not comment on his vote. “Only I know how I voted. Nobody knows, everything else is speculation, and that’s why I reject a discussion on this topic,” he insisted on NDR Info.
Bundesliga clubs want to play it safe
In their demand for a new vote, the clubs are primarily concerned with legally securing the process. “These suspicions must be completely dispelled,” Cologne’s sports director Christian Keller reiterated on Sunday. It is primarily about “ensuring legal certainty and acceptance.”
The fans, on the other hand, are hoping for a final end to the investors’ plans, which had already failed last May. If the massive protests and disruptions in the Bundesliga stadiums ultimately lead to this result, Kind expects damage to German professional football. “My fear is that it will also have an impact on the negotiations of television contracts in the future. And on sponsors,” said the majority shareholder of the second division club. If an investor’s entry fails, this represents stagnation, said Kind. “And stagnation always means regression.”