The numerous protests canceled the television agreement between CVC partners and the Bundesliga
The last three months of the Bundesliga and the Zweite Bundesliga (the German Serie B) have been much talked about. What took center stage was the question of sale of television rights by the DFL – the German “Football League” – to CVC Capital Partners, a investment fund British. The vast majority of fans, however, harshly opposed this agreement and demonstrated their dissent through a series of imaginative but effective protests and initiatives: from classic banners to the throwing of thousands of tennis balls, even leading to the invasion carried out with radio-controlled cars armed with smoke bombs.
Because of these demonstrations, some matches simply started late. In other cases, however, the players themselves asked the public to stop protesting so they could play peacefully. On one occasion, the referee even had to intervene threatening the suspension of the match with consequent defeat by forfeit. For this reason, after only a few months from the start of the project, the president of the Deutsche Fußball Liga Hans-Joachim Watzke made the stop negotiations between the German league and CVC Capital Partners.
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But why did the Bundesliga try to sell the television rights to an investment fund? And especially, because the fans protested with such vehemence once aware of this negotiation? Let’s go in order, taking a few steps back.
How does German football work?
Football in Germany is managed and organized in an extremely different way compared to Italy and almost every other country in the world. There, in fact, the 50+1 rule applies, whereby the majority (therefore minimum 51%) of the shares of the German clubs are in the hands of associations of fans and members of the club itself. The rule is obviously intended to strengthen the bargaining power of fans compared to that of large investors, thus maintaining a balance of power favorable to sporting and social interests over merely economic ones.
The only exceptions – bitterly contested by the German fan world – are Hoffenheim, Bayer Leverkusen e Wolfsburg, for which there is an exemption that cannot be extended to new companies. Then there’s the RB Leipzigofficially respectful of the 50+1 rule but accused of maintaining this system only as a façade (a bit like it did with the official name – RasenBallsport Leipzig – created as a neologism only to circumvent the ban on sponsors in names of the teams). In fact, it seems that joining one of the RB Leipzig fan associations, unlike what happens elsewhere, is an extremely complicated undertaking. Furthermore, the membership clubs appear to be heavily influenced by Red Bull ownership.
The message from the Bayern ultras is quite clear.
Precisely the 50+1 rule, therefore, ensures that fans have a strong influence on decisions take it from board of the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga clubs and, consequently, of the DFL. The requests of the fans, for example, last year were fundamental for the maintenance and strengthening of the 50+1, doubted by many club managers and within the Federation. In December 2023, shortly after the reversal just mentioned, the DFL instead communicated the green light from the clubs for the twenty-year management by CVC of TV rights and football marketing in Germany. This agreement would have been reached with the aim of increasing revenues and promoting Bundes and Zweite also abroad. More specifically, the DFL would have sold 8% of future TV rights in order to receive from the investment fund an immediate liquidity injection which would have been between eight hundred million and one billion euros.
However, the club, federation and CVC had not taken into consideration at all one player in the match, who shortly revealed himself to be the true protagonist of the story: the fans. According to what was complained, the partners would have been completely ousted from the decision-making process, clearly going against the laws and values of 50+1. In fact, the fans feared that, once they had sold a first part of the revenues from TV rights to private investors, they would be able to more or less directly impose new times for the matches (in Germany most of the matches are played simultaneously on Saturdays at 3.30 pm with the exception of two or three advances and postponements), changes in the format of the championship or the location of the matches themselves. Basically, they feared the Bundesliga would become like many of the European leagues: “stew” rounds, cup matches played around the world and other amenities. All fundamental factors for German fans, rightly jealous of their status. Hence, therefore, the protest of organized fans against the league’s decision was born.
How the fans protested
As we mentioned, in the stands (and on the fields) the German fans raised their voices, using the most disparate protest methods to communicate their dissent towards the agreement between DFL and CVC Capital. The initiatives included the most “normal” banners – absolutely the media preferred by ultras groups around the world – in some cases more elaborate and in others very simple and direct, like the “Shit Dfl”i.e. “DFL shit” appeared recently in yellow wall of Borussia Dortmund. In Hamburg-Hannover, however, the local fans came up with a very ingenious method of protest. Before the match, some ultras with their faces covered entered the pitch and tied bicycle chains to the goal posts, communicating the combination on a banner displayed in the corner: 50 01, a clear reference to the 50+1 rule which would not have been respected at the time of the league’s decision regarding TV rights.
Officials had to use an an angle grinder to cut the bicycle locks which HSV ultras fastened to the goalposts on Friday night.
Yet a glance at the Hannover away end might have helped: “The solution is 50+01.”
According to HSV ultras, the code “50+01” would have opened the locks. pic.twitter.com/rvxO3GHFD6
— Matt Ford (@matt_4d) February 13, 2024
During Cologne-BVB, making fun of the League’s attachment to money, the yellow and black fans in the away sector have threw thousands of chocolate coins onto the field, forcing the referee to stop play for a few minutes. This protest also created particular annoyance for the players who were playing the match, to the point that Emre Can complained in front of microphones in post-match interviews: “at some point it’s enough, I hope this ends soon”. Dortmund coach Edin Terzic also said that these displays of dissent can annoy players and be counterproductive to the team’s results. Kobel, the yellow and black goalkeeper, also added to the complaints, underlining that “Protesting is everyone’s right” but also “be careful not to get hurt” with all the objects that are thrown onto the field. First objective, achieved: What purpose does a protest serve if not to disturb? When he talks about the risk of getting hurt, Kobel is not only referring to the throwing of chocolate coins, which are actually not very dangerous, but to what happened on other pitches, for example in Cologne – Werder Bremen last 17 February, when they were thrown field too tennis balls and – above all – rubber marbles.
We cannot fail to mention the case of Hamburg-Hannover, in which probably the most serious and least imaginative manifestation of discontent took place, when the visiting fans exhibited a banner with a crosshair on the face of their team president, Martin Kind, in favor of the agreement and already protagonist of attempts to circumvent the 50+1. Finally, the strangest and at times spectacular way was what occurred in Hansa Rostock-Hamburg, in which, as we have said, some remote-controlled cars equipped with smoke bombs invaded the green rectangle driving security officers crazy.
The protests continued from mid-December until a few weeks ago, when Watzke and the DFL announced theinterruption of negotiations with CVC Capital Partners. The president of the German league underlined how “German professional football is in the midst of a crucial test.” But he also took note of the fact that “The sustainability of a positive conclusion of the contractin terms of financing the 36 clubs, can no longer be guaranteed given the circumstances.”. However, Watzke also added that, although it is not possible “jeopardize the conduct of the matches and the integrity of the competition”, the agreement would have been of great help for the growth of the German football movement and smaller clubs.
The fans therefore got what they wanted and they won the head-to-head battle with the DFL, making everything return to normal. The German public has in fact managed to impose itself against the wishes of the upper levels to increase revenues by failing to comply with the values of the 50+1 rule, and CVC will have to find other investments for its future.
2024-03-26 08:00:00
#Bundesliga #fans
