Investor dispute escalates
Second division team accuses DFL of massive and deliberate breach of rules
February 15, 2024, 4:42 p.m
Hannover 96’s parent club and the professional football department have been arguing for years. The conflict reaches its climax in the question of investor entry. The club accuses the German Football League of allowing Martin Kind to ignore applicable rules.
The dispute over the billion-dollar investor entry into German professional football is reaching the next level of escalation. Second division team Hannover 96 raises in a detailed, Massive allegations were made in a statement published on the club’s website against the German Football League (DFL). The DFL, the association of 36 clubs from the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga, decided in December in a secret vote with a majority of one vote to open themselves up to an investor deal. However, the parent club is of the opinion that the DFL deliberately carried out the vote “secretly and therefore in a non-transparent manner” in order to obtain a result “in the desired interest”.
The reason for the dispute is that the managing director of Hannover 96’s professional football club, Martin Kind, may not have implemented the parent club’s instructions. According to the DFL regulations, he has the authority to give instructions and had asked Kind to vote “no” – but Kind is said to have ignored this and thus contributed the decisive yes vote. The hearing aid millionaire refers to the secret vote and has consistently refused to reveal his voting behavior for weeks. Media reports and statements from other clubs indicate that Kind may have ignored the instructions.
The statement signed by the board and supervisory board of the eV therefore comes to the conclusion: “The DFL’s decision is not effective, which numerous sports law experts have now confirmed, because those responsible for the DFL disregard their own statutes regarding the 50+1 rule and the unrestricted The parent association’s right to issue instructions was not ensured, but even proactively restricted itself.” The eV “explicitly asked” the DFL to ensure “that Martin Kind’s voting behavior is understandable.”
Hanover calls for a restart of the DFL
The 50+1 rule limits the influence of external donors on clubs in the first and second divisions. It is intended to ensure that parent clubs such as Hannover 96 eV retain final decision-making power even if the professional area has been spun off into a corporation such as Hannover 96 GmbH & Co. KGaA. In Hanover, the club and the capital have been at loggerheads about this for years.
In the run-up to the vote, the Hannover 96 club had already informed the DFL “about the instructions given to Martin Kind himself to vote no in the vote, as well as about the negative reaction to this from Martin Kind’s lawyers.” The DFL had to assume “that Martin Kind, after years of violating the club’s board of directors’ instructions, would again ignore them.” The DFL had already announced sanctions against Martin Kind in August 2022 for similar incidents.
The Hannover 96 eV therefore not only sees the DFL’s “yes” as ineffective for investor entry, but is also calling for further consequences from the events. “Those responsible in the DFL have been knowingly acting contrary to their own statutes for two and a half years,” it says: “The consequence of this can only be a new beginning, both in terms of personnel and structure.” Otherwise, the existence of the 50+1 rule is finally threatened, according to which the parent clubs must retain the majority of votes in the often outsourced professional football departments.
DFB must “take a clear leadership role”
The club is turning to the German Football Association for this because: “The DFB’s promise when the DFL was founded that it would ensure that the parent clubs would always be in charge is currently not being kept either.” That’s why the DFB must now “take a clear leadership role” immediately.
The disputes over the DFL’s investor deal had caused massive protests in the stadiums in recent weeks. Fans repeatedly interrupted games in the two federal leagues with their actions. Supporters of various clubs threw tennis balls or sweets onto the field for minutes. At an away game against Hamburger SV, 96 fans held up a banner with Kind’s likeness with crosshairs on it. The billionaire then filed a complaint.
The fact that the DFL announced on Tuesday evening that one of the two possible investors, Blackstone, had withdrawn from the process also caused further debate. According to the DFL, the private equity company gave “various reasons”. According to reports, the numerous and ongoing fan protests also played a role. This leaves the investment company CVC as the last contender. The DFL hopes to receive one billion euros from a financial investor to share in the TV revenue.