This Monday evening, on which the German Football League (DFL) invited people to its annual New Year’s reception, can be located between two poles. One pole is the world of German football, the world of the many men and a few women from the 36 professional clubs who came together that evening in Frankfurt’s Palmengarten. A lot of things looked very rosy in this world that evening. Especially because of the numbers that the league association presented that evening.
Sales of 6.33 billion euros are a new record for the DFL. Just like the almost 21 million tickets sold. The league association’s profit, around 271 million euros, is more than twice as high as last year, and this figure is also a record. Lots of best values.
Often a lack of sustainability in football clubs
German professional football is doing well and continues to grow. In the economic report that the DFL published, a sentence was also missing that could still be read in last year’s report: For most clubs, it said, it remains “a challenge” to operate profitably.
That was a disguised warning, a reference to the often lack of sustainability in football clubs. Because the temptation to spend money on the future in the hope of a better place in the table in the here and now is always great in football. But now the DFL management no longer saw any reason for this warning: they were able to announce that 28 of the 36 clubs had made a profit. Last year there were only 15.
Because all of these values read so well, some people from the world of German football now want a different perception of the league. When Steffen Merkel, one of the two DFL managing directors, stood on the podium, he said: “From our point of view, given the numbers, it is time for a change of perspective.”
In recent years we have heard and read a lot about challenges and problems for the league – but the DFL’s numbers are a clear sign of strength. And league president Hans-Joachim Watzke had recently remarked that the Germans were “Europe to world champions in inflating problems and downplaying positive things.” He no longer wanted to hear so much about the desolation at the top of the Bundesliga, he wanted to emphasize the positive sides of the league.
“The next few years will require many sacrifices”
However, there was a second pole at this New Year’s reception: the world outside, the international order. The league president also addressed this in his speech: Because he thinks that the great geopolitical tangle will not pass by German football either. “I believe that the next few years will require many sacrifices from us, including economic ones,” said Hans-Joachim Watzke.
He spoke about setting up rescue packages and reducing dependencies, and about wanting to be prepared for a possible crisis. And Marc Lenz, the second half of the DFL management, looked at the international football order: There are “tectonic shifts” there, said Lenz. New and bigger competitions, exploding squad costs, new “ownership structures”.
One could think of sovereign wealth funds as club owners who can spend money without restraint. But also the trend towards club networks, the fact that owners own several clubs in Europe, between which players and sometimes coaches are swapped. “This will put pressure on the league as a whole,” Lenz said of all these postponements.
He then gave the clubs a “big compliment” on how the league is finding its way and remaining stable despite these small earthquakes in European football: Because the DFL has found a balance despite the shocks. Because it is internationally competitive and yet economically stable.
But both Lenz and Watzke warned that it was necessary to deal with new measures in Europe: with “salary caps,” for example, with upper salary limits. With options for regulating an unleashed football market. Otherwise, said Marc Lenz, “it will be difficult for clubs and leagues that act sensibly.” And so it became clear that evening: It will remain a difficult balancing act for the DFL, no matter what perspective you take.
