According to information from the FAZ, another Bundesliga club, 1. FC Köln, has decided to vote against a strategic partnership with an investor from the private equity industry on December 11th. The executive board and supervisory board of the German Football League (DFL) had spoken out in favor of making a new attempt after the failure of a similar project in May.
“The DFL has significantly improved its investor proposal. But unfortunately it has still not been sufficiently examined whether there are more sensible alternatives to a private equity investor,” explained Cologne board member Eckhard Sauren to the FAZ. The Sportschau and the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” also reported.
There is agreement on the fundamental need for investment. The controversial sums that were earmarked for the clubs’ ongoing operations are missing from the new concept. Nevertheless, the people of Cologne, like the club management of SC Freiburg, are of the opinion that there are more sensible alternatives.
The plan presented envisages selling eight percent of a subsidiary that has yet to be founded for a limited period of 20 years, to which the national and international marketing and media rights will be outsourced. That would bring in around one billion euros. In the spring, 12.5 percent of the DFL subsidiary was to be sold for two billion euros.
“Not a brave and convenient solution”
In the new variant of the project, 600 million euros are earmarked for investments in the business model, particularly in international marketing.
100 million euros are to be used to support the clubs’ marketing trips to various countries and 300 million euros would be used to compensate for the shortfall in income in the first four years that arises from the transfer of eight percent of the proceeds to the investor. “We consider the solution presented with the payment of compensation payments for investment-related shortfalls in income to be a rather courageous and convenient solution that simply postpones many problems for four years,” says Cologne Vice President Sauren.
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This means that a new opposition is increasingly forming: Cologne and Freiburg have positioned themselves openly. At FC St. Pauli and Fortuna Düsseldorf, the majority voted against a strategic partnership at general meetings, which does not have to be binding for the voting behavior of the club representatives, but represents a clear mandate. There are still discussions going on in a number of clubs. For the process to continue on December 11th, a two-thirds majority of 36 clubs must vote “yes”.
