Düsseldorf with Matthias Zimmermann (left) and Mainz with Karim Onisiwo play in two different leagues, the heads of the boards of both clubs fight for the same thing.
It is still a while before the ball rolls in the Bundesliga. The starting shot is only given on the third weekend in September. But behind the scenes, a game has long started that is extremely important for professional football, which has been forced to make economic cuts by the corona crisis: How will the slightly lower TV revenues be distributed in the future?
When Christian Seifert presented the new four-year contract with a total volume of 4.4 billion euros from the 2021/2022 season, the chairman of the management board of the German Football League (DFL) already suspected that the “debate on the distribution of money was at least as intense as that about the auction. A completely different distribution model is now being vigorously demanded for publicity: equal money for everyone. For example, two financial experts argue with the directors Thomas Röttgermann (Fortuna Düsseldorf) and Jan Lehmann (FSV Mainz 05), one of whom comes from sports marketing (Röttgermann) and the other himself worked on the rights announcement at the DFL (Lehmann). Düsseldorf CEO Röttgermann would like to talk about a “fundamental change of principles”. Mainz CFO Lehmann also wants to stop the automatism of television funds drifting further and further apart. »We want more sport than competition again.«
In the coming season, according to calculations by the specialist magazine “kicker”, FC Bayern would receive more than 70 million euros from national television marketing, while Arminia Bielefeld would receive almost 30 million euros. the Mainz-based Lehmann points out that it is essential to include the income from international marketing, which the DFL mainly distributes to the European Cup participants: Then the distribution ratio between the bottom of the table and the champions will no longer be 1: 2, but 1: 4. From the Mainz man’s point of view, the performance principle currently applied using a four-pillar model no longer makes any sense, because in the recent past, the opulent payouts by Uefa for the Champions League representatives have had a massive impact on national competition. As a result, the same clubs in Europe almost always skim off the financial framework. Lehmann finds a vicious circle that destroys national competitions.
Four of the five top European leagues have long since degenerated into monocultures in which the same champions are always chosen: FC Bayern (Germany), Juventus Turin (Italy), Paris St. Germain (France) and Real Madrid or FC Barcelona (Spain). Only England does not take part in this monotony. The question must be asked whether Bayern Munich really did more with the eighth championship in a row last season than SC Freiburg, which ended up in eighth place with a fraction of the budget? The club representatives should now present such thoughts face to face at three regional conferences when the distribution key is discussed for the first time.
At the end of the year, a decision is to be taken by the majority of the 36 license associations. The decision is made by the nine-member DFL Presidium, where the balance of power has since shifted. Five of the seven club representatives belong to the so-called small and medium-sized clubs and second division clubs. The quintet is still holding back strikingly. One of them, Oke Göttlich from FC St. Pauli, has already prompted a radical rethink before the pandemic began. The equal distribution of media revenues is an extreme requirement that, when viewed realistically, has no chance of being enforced. But if a fixed base amount – as practiced in the English Premier League – came out as a compromise, so that 50 percent of the television money would be distributed regardless of table positions, a lot would be won.
Bundesliga clubs such as FC Augsburg or Werder Bremen support this approach. Can a majority turn the wheel against the resistance of the big ones? The television money was distributed under the principle of equality until the end of the 1990s, when only a few Bundesliga professionals had received a million dollar fee. For example, the total amount of rights in the 1998/99 season was 255 million marks – each first division club got around ten million marks, about half went to the second division team. The most important partner was Sat1 with the football show »ran«. Today, the field of producers of the Bundesliga goods is as colorful as the outfit of ran moderator Reinhold Beckmann at that time.
The return to the status quo from this era would have enormous symbolic value simply because five different clubs became champions between 1990 and 1999. The league has been infected by boredom at the top since 2013. The pandemic has made it promise to do more for more sustainable business. Given this premise, allowing more justice to be made to the most important source of income would not be a bad signal.
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