Stuttgart chairman, Wehrle allays fears in search for foreign investors

Emmanuel Thomas, DPA, Wednesday, May 3, 2023

 

STUTTGART – VfB Stuttgart chairman Alexander Wehrle said he can understand why many fans are not pleased with the plans of the German football league (DFL) to sell parts of its shares to investors.

“They fear that the money that comes in will be passed on directly to players and agents. It must be communicated that this is not exclusively the case,” he told the Welt newspaper on Wednesday.

League rules mean no club can have an investor owning more than 50% of shares, with Bayer Leverkusen and Volkswagen-backed Wolfsburg among the exceptions. A way around this rule, and to make German football more competitive, is to seek investment into the top two divisions as a whole.

Interested parties must have submitted their bids to the DFL by April 24 at the latest. So far there are six applicants – Advent, Blackstone, Bridgepoint, CVC, EQT and KKR. The investor can acquire part of the league’s media rights for a term of 20 to 30 years.

Wehrle believes that it’s “in the interest of the whole of German football and thus also of the fans to invest in growth areas, such as digitalization.”

In addition, the possibility of using some of the additional money to “to keep ticket prices stable or even reduce them for the next few years” could also be discussed, he said.
However, he sees the idea of second division club Fortuna Düsseldorf to offer fans free admission to matches “difficult to implement” at Stuttgart.

“It’s a good step from Fortuna to think about ticket prices. But I question whether it has to be about free tickets,” he said.

Düsseldorf plan a football revolution by allowing all fans in for free at home games in the future, starting with a test phase of at least three matches next season.

“When you have a very high occupancy rate as a first division club like we do and also the advertising rights in the stadium are largely negotiated, it’s difficult to implement (such idea),” Wehrle added.