By: Zoran Avramović
The large influx of money from sources identified in recent years is gradually creating a financial order in which existing models of football sustainability are coming under serious scrutiny.
How porous those defensive embankments of financial fair play, meant to ensure competitive balance, have become is best illustrated by the “Achtung, Achtung” from Munich. Uli Hoeneß, honorary president of Bayern and one of the architects of not just football pride but of all Germany’s football, is at the end of his patience: “The Bundesliga must open up to investors if it wants to remain competitive.”
In other words, what represents recognition, identity, symbol, tradition, and even the culture of German football – whose poster is a lifted trophy amid stands filled with joy and pride because their Germany is the greatest – is now a lead paragraph! A weight that, according to Herr Uli, prevents an equal race with those connected to financial channels from state coffers, Wall Street – oriented investment funds, and the budgets of global corporations and their franchises.
This is about the fifty-plus-one rule (Regel 50+1). In Germany, clubs are sports associations of citizens, and since 1999 they have been allowed to register their professional section as a commercial, joint-stock company. What has been particularly significant and enviable over the years is that fans retain the majority stake in this systemic structure. The “Plus 1” represents their voice, both figuratively and in real governance. This prevents external investors from unilaterally changing the club’s image, emblems, or tradition according to their business interests or personal affinities. Regel 50+1 has established itself as a fundamental value of German football – a brilliantly functional link between fans, local communities, and clubs. All of this has been decorated with excellent results. Since the introduction of the rule in 1999, Bundesliga clubs have reached the UEFA Champions League final seven times, while Bayern has won Europe’s most prestigious trophy three times.
The clubs’ commitment to always prioritizing sporting motives over investors’ financial interests has been recognized, but…
Season after season, rewards came for this mutual loyalty: for years, the Bundesliga has led Europe in stadium attendance, while the Zweite Liga (Second Division), also under the DFL umbrella, remains unmatched by some top-five league members.
Yet, a quarter-century after its adoption, Regel 50+1 has become too narrow a framework. Internationally, Bundesliga teams cannot match the consumer and investment potential of their sporting rivals. Their market inferiority is increasingly apparent, especially when Germany’s economy faces numerous problems. And so, a do-or-die sword has been raised over the Bundesliga: with the 50+1 rule, Europe cannot be conquered!
Uli Hoeneß, more determined than ever, has signaled the start of the match. At the center are the teams “plus 1” and “minus 1.” The organic unity that for many years represented both defiance and a barrier to modern football trends, where profit comes first, has clearly cracked. I’ll leave it to each of you to predict the future winner, if there even will be one!
