Friday 23 July 2021
Always on the way to bankruptcy
“This league produces social cases everywhere”
20 clubs play in the 3rd division – and a large number fight for existence every season. The gap to the 2nd Bundesliga is huge, the risk is great. Mainly because the battle for promotion seems almost unpredictable.
But it is also a cross with this 3rd division. Only recently had weighty voices branded the former prestige project of the German Football Association (DFB) as a financially existential trap for traditional clubs, when the Corona issue came back with force: The DFB had to play the season opening game planned for today between VfL Osnabrück and the MSV Duisburg because of the quarantine of the guests.
Andreas Rettig had previously drawn a gloomy scenario. “In its current form, we are producing social cases in the third league, so to speak. It starts with the players and continues to the clubs, many of which are constantly one-legged in bankruptcy,” said the chairman of the Viktoria management board Cologne.
The long-time Bundesliga manager urged changes to the structures. Above all, second division relegated like Braunschweig, Osnabrück and Würzburg sees their existence at risk. They would “fall into a hole. Instead of eight million TV money, they suddenly only get one million. But their costs remain almost the same,” said Rettig to WDR.
Getting happy is difficult
An association could “compensate for this for a year, but not for two or three years”. That is why Rettig is not the first to bring “an adaptation of the TV contracts” into discussion. The DFB has already set up a task force for the economic stability of the league.
It is currently a league with a lot of tradition and many big names, but also many problems that were exacerbated by the pandemic and a lack of audience income. The four-time German champions 1. FC Kaiserslautern escaped a crash last season only because of a “planned bankruptcy”. The KFC Uerdingen, which amassed ten million euros in debt, had to file for bankruptcy and was ultimately no longer able to meet the license requirements.
“The risk of getting close to the sun and being burned is immense,” said Stefan Krämer, coach at KFC, the “kicker” last season. You need “responsible people who are good at dealing with money and who don’t let themselves drift too much”. Can you be happy in the third division in the long term under these circumstances? “If you’re crazy enough, of course,” said Kramer and laughed.
The list of candidates for promotion? Long
There is a fine line the clubs walk on. You are doomed to sporting success in order to be able to survive economically in the medium term. In the 2019/2020 season, the personnel costs per club were over four million euros, with an average of 1.6 million euros.
It was “not yet fully accepted by the clubs that they would have to cut their personnel costs,” said Manuel Hartmann, DFB department manager for leagues and competitions, months ago. At least the third division clubs can count on fans again this season, according to Hartmann: “14 out of 20 clubs have already reported that spectators are allowed to play their first home game.”
The list of aspirants for promotion is long. “It is extremely difficult to choose a favorite. The last few years have shown how balanced it is,” said Osnabrück’s assistant coach Tim Danneberg. It will be “brutal again”, added last year’s top scorer Sascha Mölders from 1860 Munich.
The Munich Lions, who just missed the promotion, are again among the contenders – as are Osnabrück, Braunschweig, Würzburg, Kaiserslautern or Wehen Wiesbaden.
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