Investor dispute in football
Child: “I don’t want to get involved in speculation.”
By Marko Schlichting
February 20, 2024, 4:51 a.m
The heated atmosphere in the Bundesliga stadiums in recent weeks does not necessarily have anything to do with the performances on the pitch. It is the planned investor entry into the German Football League that is bringing the fans to the barricades. At “Hard but Fair” Hannover 96 boss Kind meets fan representatives.
Football games across Germany have been interrupted for weeks. Objects keep flying from the fan curves onto the field: tennis balls, chocolate coins, small cars. At the second division game between HSV and Hannover 96, fans attach bicycle locks to the goal post, which are then removed with a flex. The game has to be interrupted for a longer period of time and there is a risk of it being canceled.
Ostensibly, the protesters are interested in a vote within the German Football League. This is the interest group of the 36 clubs and corporations represented in the first and second Bundesliga, especially towards the DFB. The DFL clubs decided with a two-thirds majority in December to allow investors to join. Now the protesting fans have achieved success. The DFL presidium is meeting this week to discuss a possible new vote. On “Hart aber fair” on ARD, the guests discuss why the football fans are protesting – and whether another vote could solve the problem.
SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert would be in favor of it. The self-confessed Arminia-Bielefeld fan knows that professional football cannot function without money and distances himself from some of the protests, but also says: “The sport depends largely on and with the fans. But you have to do something to ensure that actually stays that way.”
And apparently many fans aren’t so sure about that. Although the contracts do not supposedly provide for it, they fear that investors could, for example, intervene in the kick-off times of the games in order to be able to sell the corresponding rights for television broadcasting at a higher price. Most games start on Saturday at half past three in the afternoon, and it should stay that way, they demand. Ariane Hingst also sees it that way. She was a national player for 15 years and won two world championship titles with the women’s national team. She can’t imagine a kick-off time in the morning, for example. The players are not yet fully capable, she says in “Hard but fair”.
She can understand the fans’ protests, although she doesn’t like the constant game interruptions. She’s already experienced something like this, during a thunderstorm. “That’s very unsatisfactory because then you can’t deliver your work as you would like.” After an interruption it is very difficult to get back into the game.
The anger of the fans
Thomas Kessen from the fan association “Our Curve” and the managing director of Hannover 96 Management GmbH, Martin Kind, explain in the program how the vote came about in December that triggered the fan protests. According to Kessen, the clubs were informed about the upcoming vote at the end of October or beginning of November, which was then scheduled to take place five weeks later. The club members should have commented during this time. Kessen: “But then you have clubs with thousands, tens of thousands of members. That means you first have to organize how you want to set up a communication process, you then have to carry it out. You can’t do that in four or five weeks. That’s why: That The suspicion is that the schedule was so short that it wasn’t even possible to talk to the members about it. And that’s one of the main points of criticism that we fans are currently making – that we say: You have it all figured out Backroom more or less coordinated,”
Investor Martin Kind describes how the vote was taken. The vote was secret and no one asked for a public vote. After the vote it was clear: exactly two thirds of those present were in favor of investor involvement. Nobody took advantage of the subsequent objection period.
After the fan protests began, most of the participants explained how they voted. Martin Kind, commissioned by Hannover 96 to vote against investor involvement, does not do that. “I have a different understanding of democracy,” he says, “I also have a different understanding of the rules of the game.” The DFL invited people about two months before the vote. Others commented on their voting behavior. Child: I reject that. To make it very clear: I don’t want to take part in the speculation at all.” A little later he restricts: “We assume that we will observe the 50+1 rule, taking into account this 96- Contract.” And this 50+1 rule does not apply to Hannover 96 in part. The club and main shareholder Kind had agreed on this in 2019 in order to avert the threat of insolvency. It is possible that Kind did not have to adhere to the club’s instructions.
What’s next?
There is only one possible investor for the DFL, the CVC. This is one of the ten largest investment companies in the world, colloquially known as a “locust”. The CVE collects money, which it then invests in companies whose shares are not traded on the stock exchange.
“At least the solution has to be that the vote is repeated, openly and transparently. That would be the absolute minimum,” demands fan spokesman Thomas Kessen on “Hard but fair”. The DFL should put all of its plans on file and leave it alone.
Marin Kind is in favor of investors getting involved in the DFL. “Putting money into a club can also be described as a bad decision,” he says. Anyone who does something like that cannot earn any money in Germany, with two exceptions. “Conversely, money has to come into the system. Otherwise we will reach stagnation,” says Kind. He also knows where there is a problem: “We have to invest in the infrastructure. In youth work, in the issue of sustainability, and in digitalization.”
But you don’t need investors for that, says Kessen. “The Bundesliga could do that on its own if you just distribute the amount of money that is already there differently. Then you don’t need a lot of money from outside.”