The German Bundesliga announced this Wednesday that it will finally not open the door to private investors after weeks of protests by fans and disputes between and within football clubs, after having announced two months ago that it was beginning the process to close contracts with funds investment.
At its extraordinary meeting held this Wednesday in Frankfurt, the board of the German Football League (DFL) unanimously decided not to continue with the process, the sports organization reported in a statement. “Given current events, a successful continuation of the process no longer seems possible,” said DFL spokesman Hans-Joachim Watzke.
He noted that, although a large majority is in favor of the business need for a strategic partnership, the previous decision to open the door to private investors has generated “major disputes” not only between clubs, but partly also within the clubs between, players, coaches, directors, supervisory bodies, general assemblies and fan communities.
In recent weeks, league matches had to be interrupted for several minutes and sometimes several times over 90 minutes because fans threw objects onto the field such as tennis balls and even remote-controlled cars, alluding to the fact that, if private investors entered the the league will all be directed from outside.
Watzke stressed that all this endangers the functioning of the game, certain progressions of the game and, with it, the integrity of the competition. “Under the circumstances, the viability of a successful conclusion of a contract for the financing of 36 clubs in the league can no longer be guaranteed,” the spokesperson said.
The decision in December was taken with a two-thirds majority and the decisive vote went to the manager of second league team Hannover 96, Martin Kind, who apparently did not comply with his own club’s guidelines to vote against.
The DFL noted that it also sees no solution in repeating the vote to resolve the problem. In fact, before going ahead last December, in May 2023 the clubs had spoken out against this innovative measure, as only 20 out of 36 voted in favor.
The new CEO duo, Marc Lenz and Steffen Merkel, had promoted a new deal, ultimately approved by Kind’s vote, under which the League would have gained from an investor stake of around 8% over over several years between 900 and 1,000 million euros.
In December, according to the sports newspaper Kicker, there was interest from four private equity companies: Advent, Blackstone, CVC and EQT. In the end, CVC Capital and Blackstone would have been the only interested parties, the latter fund that withdrew from the process last week, according to the same German media.
Bundesliga fans had been against the participation of investors from the beginning. The new model provided for licensing global media rights and other commercial rights (e.g. central licensing partnerships and league-level sponsorships) to a start-up company.
Through its minority shareholding in the company, the partner would have received a maximum of 8% of the license revenue from the exploitation of DFL’s commercial rights over the duration of the 20-year license agreement. The process was expected to be completed by the end of March 2024.
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