Bundesliga gives up in agreement with private investors – 02/21/2024 – Sport

The German Football League (DFL) announced this Wednesday (21) that it has withdrawn from the controversial agreement with private investors to share the Bundesliga’s broadcasting rights in exchange for a financial contribution to help the commercialization and international promotion of the German Championship.

“Due to current events, it does not appear possible to continue this process successfully,” DFL Steering Committee spokesman Hans-Joachim Watzke said in a statement, alluding to nationwide protests in recent weeks.

As a way of boycotting this agreement, fans organized to throw tennis balls, chocolate coins and other objects onto the pitch with the aim of delaying or interrupting matches.

The 36 clubs from the first (Bundesliga) and second (Bundesliga 2) divisions decided in December that they would turn to an investor, the CVC fund, to “guarantee the lasting long-term success” of their professional league.

In exchange for 8% of future television rights, the DFL should receive around 1 billion euros (R$5.3 billion at current exchange rates) to help market and promote the Bundesliga internationally.

The image and impact of the German league is far from the level of championships like the English and Spanish, despite big clubs like Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund and the huge presence of audiences in the country’s stadiums, which are almost always full.

The December decision came after a first failure of a similar project in May last year.

Supporter groups opposed the deal saying the process had been marred by a lack of transparency and would lead to an “over-commercialization” of the sport.

The center of the debate was the threat over the so-called ’50+1 rule’, which requires German clubs to maintain at least 50% plus one vote of rights for their own members in the face of possible external investors. With this rule in force, clubs maintain control of their own decisions and fans feared that the agreement would be a first step against this principle.

“It’s a good day for German football fans,” Thomas Kessen, spokesman for the association ‘Our Curve’, told SID, a subsidiary of AFP.