RB Leipzig loses to Real Madrid in the Champions League. The Spaniards have a good goalkeeper, good refereeing and generally a better squad. Leipzig fans protest in the stadium and the DFL announces the end of talks with an investor. Everything is connected to everything.
The absurdity of the simultaneity of things was revealed on Tuesday in the former Leipzig Central Stadium. In the stadium, which has long bore the name of the Austrian soft drink giant Red Bull, the fans of RasenBallsport Leipzig, who, as everyone knows, actually wanted to be called Red Bull Leipzig, protested with a “Still Not Loving UCL Reforms” against the new format of the UEFA Champions League. On the pitch they played against record winners Real Madrid, who actually want to play in a Super League for a long time.
At the same time, the DFL announced the exit of a possible investor, Blackstone, for the top two leagues of German football. It was said that the reason for this was the tennis ball protests by the fans, who had kept football in suspense in recent weeks. The Leipzig supporters did not take part in them.
Why? According to the firm view of the masses protesting these days, the club from the trade fair city has already suspended the rules of German football with its march to the top leagues. Under the impression of the new strength in German football, other clubs had broken away. HSV, which had been in crisis for a long time, FC Schalke 04 and also the club from Berlin’s Westend, Hertha BSC, which had temporarily emulated Leipzig with a financial backer, had collapsed over the years.
Leipzig lacks voting members of the club
One of the rules that fans say has been repealed is the 50+1 rule, which is intended to ensure that investors cannot take over the majority of votes in the professional clubs’ spun-off corporations. Whether this regulation still applies is controversial. Because the owner of Hannover 96, Martin Kind, voted against the interests of his own club in the second vote on the possible entry of an investor – which has not yet been officially confirmed. The situation in Hanover is complicated. Not the one in Leipzig.
There is no real club in Leipzig and so there are no voting members who can oppose the interests of the sponsor, Red Bull. You may find that stupid or not. The Austrian company is one of a constantly growing number of companies that operate numerous football clubs worldwide and are subsumed under the term multi-club ownership. This results in competitive advantages that other clubs do not have.
The private equity company Blackstone, like the remaining potential investor CVC, is working with money from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF, which has been keeping football in suspense since the desert kingdom’s transfer offensive. The PIF owns four top clubs there, so they are also part of the multi-club ownership scene. His arm already extends to Europe, where he has acquired the traditional club Newcastle United in the uninhibited English Premier League. This is surprisingly well received in the north of England, the home of the Geordies, but is otherwise rejected. Because Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s understanding of human rights does not necessarily arise from the norms of the Western world.
Too big for their own leagues
Such structures have been sprouting up all over Europe in recent years. Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi with Manchester City or the French capital club Paris Saint-Germain, which is on the Qatari drip, as well as the investors from the private equity industry in the Premier League or in the Italian La Liga as well as the revolting super clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid from Spain, who have become so big that nothing can actually hold them in their national league anymore. With the investor deal, the DFL wanted or wants to, because CVC is still in business, keep pace with these developments. This is also controversial. But that’s what the DFL is essentially about.
As if all of this wasn’t complicated enough, this Tuesday in the Red Bull Arena, RB Leipzig lost 1-0 to the giants from the Spanish capital, which was certainly due to an absurd wrong decision by the Bosnian referee Irfan Peljto and the non-intervention of the Dutch video referee Pol van Boekel in the first minutes of the game, a bitter setback for the qualification dreams of the Saxon Bundesliga club, which for many is located in Fuschl am See, Austria, for the club that is due to play in 2025 -World Cup of the best 32 teams in the existing world. It will be held in the USA. It should give FIFA, led by President Gianni Infantino, who longs for at least the Nobel Peace Prize, access to the best clubs on the European continent – and of course find the best club in the world. It will be a spectacle, no need for a prophet.
RB Leipzig probably missed out on an exclusive FIFA ticket
After this defeat and the likely impending exit in the round of 16 of the Champions League, RB Leipzig could escape FIFA’s grip. They have to catch up with Borussia Dortmund by six points in a ranking announced a few months ago in order to gain access to the new money pots. For this exclusive ticket to FIFA’s new money pot, which is distributed every four years, they would have to reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League against Real Madrid and hope for Dortmund to be eliminated in their round of 16 against PSV Eindhoven.
Nothing will likely come of this. In the end, Real Madrid won the game thanks to an individual masterful performance from Brahim DÃaz in the 49th minute, only underlining what the Spaniards were never tired of saying in Leipzig these days. Real Madrid is one of Europe’s super clubs, RB Leipzig is not. Only FC Bayern can boast of this title in Germany.
The real season, Toni Kroos, the German midfielder from Real Madrid, had said, only begins in February and therefore with the knockout phase of the Champions League, the reform of which the Leipzig fans are now at least for a short time against Barricades went.
Because it promises an even more modern football world. Starting next season, UEFA’s millions will be pouring in for 36 clubs, four more than before. The group phase has been abolished. It will be replaced by a so-called Swiss league system, in which each club will then have eight games instead of six. In the end, only the last twelve clubs are eliminated, the rest go into the knockout phase. The European Football Union will pay out 2.467 billion euros from the new season instead of the previous 2.002 billion euros. Despite the larger field of participants, there is on average more to earn.
Even more money than before for the biggest ones
But those who do not qualify for the competition hardly take part in it. The qualifier takes everything. Next year alone there will be a signing bonus of over 18 million euros and, with a little success, a lot more. Getting into the Champions League not only means prestige for the clubs, but also a lot of money. The renowned English football finance blog “The Swiss Ramble” listed the income of participants in this year’s group phase in December 2023.
With PSG (99 million), Manchester City (96 million), FC Bayern (95 million) and Real Madrid (93 million), four clubs received over 90 million euros for the six games in the preliminary round. The sum consists of the starting, winning and coefficient bonuses as well as the market pool, which can only be determined exactly after the season. But Borussia Dortmund (79 million) and RB Leipzig (67 million) couldn’t complain either. For Union Berlin, the fourth Bundesliga club, the short trip to the premier league wasn’t quite as fruitful. They only grossed 29 million euros and will probably not reach this competition any time soon.
Protests come from the heart
Anyone who has played in the Champions League long enough can dominate in national competitions. A crisis for Bayern is the fight for the championship. One of Borussia Dortmund’s crises is the fight for the Champions League. A crisis for Werder Bremen could mean relegation.
There will be no less money with the new Champions League format. There will be more. And it won’t be the end for a long time, because the European Court of Justice’s ruling on the Super League last December has not yet been fully assessed. It remains unclear who it will benefit. It is also completely unclear who still wants and can understand all of this. Everything could be so simple.
“I’ll give it to him,” said RB coach Rose when asked about Real Madrid’s Brahim Díaz’s dream goal. It came from the bottom of my heart. This is also where the fans’ protests come from. They were at least partially successful in the Bundesliga. Football above, in Europe and in the world, has long since been lost to interests outside the influence of the fans, the shareholders of football. The Bundesliga is not lost yet. However, she quickly needs an idea of where she wants to locate herself in this absurd world of football. And who wants to go this route with them. The territories are marked.