Why DFL must stop search for investors in Bundesliga – Finance Watch Germany

 

BERLIN – A German finance watch group has published a petition urging the German Football League (DFL) not to bring in investors with the aim of generating more income.

“A private equity entrance would drastically change football – and certainly not for the better,” Daniel Mittler, managing director of non-profit organization Bürgerbewegung Finanzwende (Finance Watch Germany) said in a statement on Saturday.

“The plan to bundle all media rights and to give international private equity investors a stake in these rights is dangerous. We call on you to reject it.”

The DFL plans to sell a 12.5% share of its Bundesliga media rights marketing over 20 years to investors. This is to generate around €2 billion ($2.2 billion) of which 85% are to go into DFL future areas and strengthen its overall stability.

The investors are to have no or only a very limited saying. A decision is scheduled for May 24 at the DFL assembly.

Mittler warned that “private equity investors do not give money without something in return” and that fans would be the ones to suffer.

“Private equity firms are not concerned with sport and the culture that goes with it, but with profit. The involvement of private equity threatens a new dimension of profit orientation in German football,” he said.

He said that investors in English and Spanish football showed that maximising profit was their main target, and that their influence has also been felt in a negative way in other areas such as care, the health sector and the property market.

“In all these areas the financialisation has negative effects for us, the society,” Mittler said. “We urge you to take the experiences of other walks of life as a warning instead of being tempted by a short-term windfall.”