Football club ownership - German style
This article was published in the Times on March 24th under the headline
"Bundesliga is still the people's game"
Very thought-provoking, especially for a club with Wycombe Wanderers' ownership status:
"German football found itself at a fork in the road this week. In one direction was the "Sonderweg", the special path it has followed for so many years, protecting clubs from the influence of external investors.
To the surprise of some, they opted, just about, in favour of the Sonderweg. 18 of the 36 clubs from German football's top two divisions voted to retain the so-called 50+1 rule, whereby the controlling stake of any club (50% + one share, at a minimum) is owned by its members, which means its supporters. 'Those who love football can enjoy this result', Andreas Rettig, the chief executive of St Pauli, who had brought the motion to retain and improve the 'legal certainty' of the rule. 'It sends out an important message'.
It certainly does. It is not the end of the story - Martin Kind, the president of Hannover, will continue to fight 50+1, while the Bayern Munich chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge feels the rule is a 'luxury', outdated in the modern world - but the message is that, in Germany at least, a football club is far more than just a business or plaything.
In Germany, they look at English football with a sense of sadness: at stadiums that are full of people but bereft of the passion and fervour of old; at mediocre players signed on huge contracts; at low-risk football while much of the best young homegrown talent is left to stagnate; at clubs owned by sheikhs, oligarchs, individuals or consortiums with little knowledge of or interest in the game. This week offered Germany an opportunity to follow the Premier League model and, tellingly, after being presented with a 30-metre long petition signed by more than 3,000 supporter groups across the country, the clubs voted against it.
It makes you think, doesn't it? For all that the Premier League is a global success story, the view in Germany remains that a football club's function is to reflect, represent and bring joy to its community. Germany is an outward-looking nation, at the heart of Europe in more ways than one, which believes football clubs should remain rooted within their communities. There is an obvious contrast with an island nation, in the midst of an identity crisis, where football, along with certain other industries, has come to lust after Russian, Chinese, Middle Eastern or American wealth - no questions asked.
There are broader questions about what this represents, but let us not digress too far. Some will argue that external investment has enriched English football. In some ways it has, but this is severely overstated. The impact on certain clubs - Chelsea, Manchester City, even Bournemouth - has been hugely positive, but far more numerous are the clubs whose fans feel underwhelmed, disappointed, disillusioned, alienated or indeed outraged by the wealthy individuals and groups who have taken control, promising much but delivering precious little.
The Bundesliga is not perfect.; Bayern have won the past five league titles by at least ten points, often plundering the best talents from rival clubs (Mario Goetze, Robert Lewandowski and Mats Hummels from Dortmund; Manuel Neuer and soon Leon Goretzka from Schalke), and are 17 points clear this time with seven matches remaining, but at least, to a large extent, their pre-eminent financial position has been earned organically. Their annual income (€587.8 million - about £515 million) dwarfs that of Dortmund (€332.6 million) which in turn dwarfs that of Schalke (€230.2 million), which in turn dwarfs that of Borussia Moenchengladbach €169.3 million), but that is just the way things are: a consequence of UEFA-sponsored stratification within European football, rather than a failure of the German system or, as in England, the luck of the ownership lottery.
There is, though, a charming authencity to the Bundesliga. It is not just because they have a greater proportion of homegrown players (just over half, as to around a third in the Premier League), or because fans are allowed to stand, have a beer and enjoy themselves, rather than being conditioned to sit as quietly as they would on a commuter train. It is because the Bundesliga reflects that desire to protect and enhance the link between Club and community.
Even the spectacular rise of a 'franchise club' has met with a reassuring backlash, with fans and other clubs feeling that RB Leipzig are a threat to values that must be preserved. (They were formed in 2009 and are largely unaffected by the 50+1 rule, since their handful of members are largely drawn from executives of Red Bull GmbH, the manufacturers of the energy drink).
Some though RB Leipzig's rise would mark the end of 50+1, prompting clubs to put self-interest before the greater good, but, refreshingly, it appears to have strengthened the resolve behind the rule and the ideal - of a club at the heart of its community, playing for its fans - that it represents.
German football should never lose sight of those principles. Once they are diluted, there is no going back".
Comments
Watching German football is a joy. They have got it spot on over there.
Thanks for posting Andy.
There were initially numerous protests/boycotts at RB Leipzig games, but I don't know if they have carried on into recent seasons, especially now they are, sadly, firmly established in the Bundesliga.
Seems like a sensible system. It's left @DJWYC14 speechless.
Sadly for all their nasty, rabble rousing patriotic posturing the top echelons of this country see value in nothing they cannot sell or financially benefit from. They would sell their granny for a tenner before buggering off abroad to spend the money! Some European countries do see the value of community and civil society.
Having recently sampled a couple of Bundesliga matches I can thoroughly recommend the experience...but only if the weekend coincides with an unattainable WW away day of course.
I meant to put a thumbs up. Phone clearly to blame
Ticket prices are so cheap there as well - more comparable to those at our level than in the Greed League.
Watching the game before wwfc/Grimsby on the telly PNE vDerby County amazed at the amount of empty seats. Same at Notts County on Friday football is becoming expensive to watch.
Something has got to change.
This forum doesn't seem to like emojis. I'd look into fixing it but imagine it would enrage half the users.
It would. But a long tedious emoji thread would keep us going in the fallow period post promotion analysis (where’s GA going, can he keep us up, who was the mysterious sheik spotted at the Creseex Roundabout). I say go for it- I can see many a use for the poo emoji and that winking one.
As for German football - good for them is my conclusion. Never been to a game there but I imagine it’s well worth it.
I'm all for an emoji-less forum.
I vote for no emojis, except the lightning bolt one for when we play Rovers next season.
:-)
Emoji reactions would be useful, like on GitHub issues. That seems like too much work though.
Emojis are a step too far for me.
If only there was a way to use words to express my view of the need for emojis.
what's the emoji for 'Oh **** off!'
I'm starting to think this might be quite useful.
Naah, don’t work with iPhone.
Please no @drcongo
@drcongo You are the joint-winner, with yourself, of EOTD!