DFL boss loses trust
Watzke: Separation of the Bundesliga “Ultima Ratio”
06/04/2023 10:57 am
Hans-Joachim Watzke speaks out against a separation of the 1st Bundesliga and the 2nd League. The DFL supervisory board chairman wants to continue mediating even after the lightning-off of the investor process. However, the powerful official is disappointed by some of his colleagues.
After the abrupt end of the investor process in the DFL, Hans-Joachim Watzke spoke out clearly against a sometimes discussed splitting of the Bundesliga from the second division. “That is expressly not my personal wish. Separating the two leagues can only ever be the ultima ratio,” said the chairman of the supervisory board of the German Football League and managing director of Borussia Dortmund in an interview with “Bild am Sonntag”.
He once joined the DFL “to ensure the unity of the league,” added Watzke: “I still see myself as an intermediary and want to work sensibly with all 36 clubs.” But he also makes no secret of the fact that “the personal relationship of trust with some colleagues has been damaged in this process”. “You can’t vote unanimously 9-0 in favor of this motion in the DFL Presidium at 12 noon and then three hours later vote and three members suddenly speak against it. That doesn’t happen in my world.”
At the meeting on May 24, the necessary two-thirds majority for negotiations with potential investors was missed. Watzke then said that “please no one should come to him in the near future” with “solidarity issues”. The 63-year-old now defended this statement. “The question of solidarity, nobody will have to rub it in my face for the next few years! That means you can’t say there’s no solidarity in the Bundesliga,” said Watzke. BVB and FC Bayern would have agreed upon an agreement with an investor to market centrally for 20 years, Watzke clarified.
“Potential investors are seriously irritated”
The issue of investors is “off the table for now,” affirmed the DFL boss, “potential investors are already very irritated by the events.” The most urgent task is now the search for a new managing director, since the interim bosses Axel Hellmann (Eintracht Frankfurt) and Oliver Leki (SC Freiburg) are leaving at the end of June and the preferred candidate Jan-Christian Dreesen preferred to accept the post of CEO at FC Bayern.
“Honestly, I understand her attitude. I wouldn’t have done it operationally in her place,” admitted Watzke frankly: “Because otherwise I would have to leave my club, my love. We want someone from football, but that means, conversely, that the person would have to leave his club.” In addition, it is difficult “to find economic and football expertise in one person,” reported Watzke: “It’s not always easy.”