Now we know: the DFL’s investor deal has fallen through. With a manageable statement, the German Football League announced that it would not continue negotiations with the remaining interested party. This is certainly a success for the fans, who wanted to achieve exactly that with their protests. But every supporter who did not take part in the protests should also be aware that the protesters were defending the interests of all fans. They would also have been affected by further fragmentation of matchdays, possible foreign games or expensive streaming offers.
We will never know the real reason why the talks broke off. The DFL’s dance on the razor’s edge of the 50-plus-one rule may also have played a role. The violations of 50-plus-one during the vote were obvious, so much so that the Federal Cartel Office even announced that the rule would be re-examined due to the irregularities in the vote. The disaster for German football would have been an existing investor deal at the expense of the failure of 50-plus-one. Nobody – no DFL, no association and no club – could take this risk. It would have been the end of traditional German football with its unique fan culture. We would have expected English conditions. Nobody needs overpriced tickets, a dying football culture and fragmented match days.
And so it is thanks to the absolutely peaceful protesting fans that we were spared this. Not just the DFL, but all associations should have learned from the last few weeks that you cannot ignore football fans. Not at Monday games and not at investor deals either.
A fan loves the game and won’t let anyone take it away from him. No official, no club or association should dare to play with 50-plus-one anymore.
“Sport free!” from the fan advocate
