Managing director Martin Kind of the second division club Hannover 96 has criticized Hans-Joachim Watzke for his statements at the end of the investor process at the German Football League (DFL). In his role as spokesman for the DFL executive committee, Watzke also justified the decision to stop the controversial investor plans with the events at the Lower Saxony club. There has been a long-standing dispute between the management of the Hannover 96 club and the football corporation.
“It is the DFL’s concept. They should also stand by this. “You have developed this strategy and have now ended the process,” said Kind in an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (Wednesday). “What does that have to do with my voting behavior?”
Child: Do not declare 50+1 to be set in its current form
The 36 DFL clubs from the first and second Bundesliga decided on the possible entry of an investor on December 11th with the required two-thirds majority of 24 votes. 96 managing director Kind is assumed to have voted for it contrary to the instructions of the club’s management.
Resistance to the entry of an investor came primarily from the organized fan scene. There were protests at games in the first and second Bundesliga and there were numerous interruptions. Child was also the target of protests by Hanover supporters. Banners with his portrait in a crosshairs were displayed around the stadium. The background is the dispute over the 50+1 rule. This limits the influence of external donors to professional clubs. It is intended to ensure that parent clubs such as Hannover 96 eV retain final decision-making power even if the professional area has been spun off into a corporation such as Hannover 96 GmbH & Co. KGaA.
Kind is considered a critic of the rule and has been calling for changes for a long time. That’s why he also criticized Watzke for his categorical adherence to 50+1. “I think it is wrong that Mr. Watzke declares the 50+1 rule to be in place in its current form. Because he’s already saying: Changes can’t happen at all,” said Kind.
Watzke described the DFL’s collapsed deal with an investor as “bad for the league”. The broken negotiations posed “no problem” for Bayern Munich or Borussia Borussia Dortmund, said the league boss in a virtual round of discussions with international media. But it is “a problem for the other clubs in the league. The investor’s money would be perfect to help the entire Bundesliga grow.”
Watzke (64) complained that only a minority of supporters had prevailed with their protests. The “average fans” had “no problem” with an investor, “but they didn’t tell anyone.” Only “maybe 500 or 800 in the stadium, the organized fans, they had a clear position – no investor.” This minority did not believe that the contract contained the “clear red lines” promised by the DFL.
The protests ultimately changed the entire situation, Watzke explained. The clubs, which had previously voted in a second election with the required two-thirds majority to negotiate with an investor, had gotten cold feet due to the resistance of the supporters. “As head of the Bundesliga, I always had the feeling that the clear majority of clubs were in favor of it, but in the last few weeks that has changed.”
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In the international media round with the participation of the AFP news agency, Watzke wanted to announce the opening of a DFL office in New York, but was then confronted with questions about the rejection of an investor. “The Germans are traditional, maybe even a bit old-fashioned. “Investor is perhaps not the best word in Germany,” said Watzke: At the same time, he wanted to recognize a “problem in German society”: for every “idea that you tell the public, the public says: not good.”
