“Wrong addressee again”
Union boss opposes criticism of “shitty DFL”
December 25, 2023, 11:06 a.m
When the first and second division soccer teams voted for the investor deal, 1. FC Union did not give their consent. But President Dirk Zingler isn’t all that anti, he even describes his club as a “story of courageous investors.” He believes the criticism of the “shitty DFL” is wrong.
Union Berlin President Dirk Zingler has confirmed that he is generally open to investors in German football – as long as the type of deal is right. “We as a Union are not fundamentally against investors in football for ideological reasons, because we ourselves are a club that has been investing in all of its areas with outside capital for 20 years. 1. FC Union Berlin is a story of courageous investors,” Zingler said in a club interview with the Bundesliga club.
Union Berlin was not one of the 24 first and second division clubs that gave their consent in mid-December for the planned entry of an investor into the German Football League (DFL). “We voted against this type of investor deal because we don’t think it’s good for the league. Because we believe that we are making a decision for a period of 20 years that we cannot yet foresee today,” explained Zingler and added in general: “I am clearly against investors who are purely interested in returns. I am against multi-club ownership. I am against investors who actually change our football.”
After months of advertising, the DFL leadership was given the mandate to begin negotiations for a strategic partnership with an external investor. The new partner is to pay one billion euros for a percentage share of the TV revenue. The contract should have a maximum term of 20 years and be signed by the start of the 2024/25 season. A large part of the income will flow into the further development of the DFL business model and, above all, strengthen foreign marketing.
In the summer, Zingler vehemently defended an investor’s planned and failed minority investment in the DFL and the hoped-for billions in income from the sale of part of the media rights together with his pre-advertiser Hans-Joachim Watzke from Borussia Dortmund.
There had recently been strong criticism from the fan camps about the recent decision. “I would like to appeal once again to the term ‘shitty DFL’ in the protests. It’s once again unclear because basically the DFL employees didn’t decide that and neither did Mr Lenz and Mr Merkel as managing directors. The clubs decided it “So if it says ‘Shit DFL’, that’s once again the wrong addressee,” said Zingler.