Investors in the DFL?
Watzke dares a new start at the permanent bone of contention
08/22/2023, 2:49 p.m
After the failure of an investor deal for the DFL, the head of the supervisory board, Hans-Joachim Watzke, personally declared the debate over. But three months later he has apparently changed his mind and is calling for a fresh start.
The supposedly final basta lasted for three months, after the initial storm of indignation, the league investor, the bone of contention, actually calmed down. But that seems to be the end of it now. Because with some distance, the grandees of the Bundesliga as well as the German Football League are slowly switching back to fighting mode in the billion dollar question and do not want to simply accept the bitter defeat in the vote in May.
“I think it’s not the end yet,” said DFL supervisory board chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke. Rather, after the failed first attempt, he would “try to save what can be saved”. His impression was “that some clubs who voted against now see the situation differently. We could try to take the next attempt without ideological boundaries. I would recommend that to everyone.”
He could “only wish the Bundesliga a new attempt,” emphasized Eintracht Frankfurt’s chairman of the supervisory board, Philip Holzer. The new DFL managing directors Marc Lenz and Steffen Merkel are apparently already exploring the options. According to “Manager Magazin”, the new management duo is said to have discussed possibilities with the private equity giants CVC, EQT and Blackstone to sell Bundesliga media rights to an investor for 500 million to 700 million euros.
“The process is over”
At the request of the business magazine, the DFL announced that there had been no exchange with “external third parties” on “specific new plans” about an investor’s entry. According to information from the newspaper, the donor should get a smaller share this time, either just the foreign rights or a bundle of national and international rights.
“The trial is over as of today,” said a personally insulted Watzke on May 24th. The plan, which failed due to the lack of a two-thirds majority, looked like this: an investor should have acquired 12.5 percent of the shares in a DFL subsidiary, to which all media rights would have been outsourced, over 20 years. The league hoped for proceeds of two billion euros from the sale.
Now Watzke and Co. are opening up the topic again, also because the opponents have so far not come up with any real alternative proposals. “Personally, I can imagine that the project will have to be revised and redesigned again. We should probably put together a smaller package and focus on the topics of internationalization and digitization,” said the BVB boss in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”.
Holzer is also still hoping for a conclusion of the investor deal. Before the vote, the 57-year-old reported in “Kicker” that “too much was said about risks instead of opportunities”. With the exception of a few clubs in the Bundesliga, there is “an equity problem, there is a broad consensus on that,” the Eintracht boss continued. He has the impression that some clubs generally lack “financial expertise”.
Due to the failure of the deal, there is still a risk that the big clubs will rely on individual marketing. Then there would be “an insane number of losers and an even greater difference in performance in the league. That cannot be in the interest of competitive integrity, fairness and excitement,” said Frankfurt board spokesman Axel Hellmann. DFL management and supervisory board boss Watzke also see it that way – and are apparently driving alternative solutions. The topic of investor entry is definitely picking up speed again.