50 + 1: Hoffenheim's managing director points to other clubs

In the debate about the 50 + 1 rule, the Cartel Office's deadline for clubs that benefit from an exception rule has expired.

The affected TSG 1899 Hoffenheim refers to other Bundesliga clubs who receive financial injections in other ways.

Sinsheim - TSG 1899 Hoffenheim has no alternative plan in the event that the Bundeskartellamt's concerns about exceptions to the 50 + 1 rule in German professional football prevail. "The process is just beginning and we are currently not working on a plan B," said managing director Frank Briel of the German press agency. The Bundeskartellamt recently criticized the exemptions from the 50 + 1 rule for the group or investor-run Bundesliga clubs TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, Bayer Leverkusen and VfL Wolfsburg.

The 36 professional clubs have to decide whether the Bundeskartellamt's assessment is more likely to question the 50 + 1 rule or whether the club form of the three clubs needs to be reconsidered. The Cartel Office has extended the deadlines for comments to the end of October. The 50 + 1 rule states that the parent club must continue to hold the majority of the votes after its professional department has been outsourced to a corporation.

In Hoffenheim, the billionaire and long-time patron Dietmar Hopp (81) is the majority owner.

“One of the main arguments is that it is much easier for these so-called“ exceptional clubs ”to raise new capital when needed.

Don't we have to ask ourselves: Has the present long overtaken the past? ", Said Briel, referring to other Bundesliga clubs:" Hertha BSC is currently - according to its own statement - happy about the largest equity investment in Bundesliga history, namely 375 million euros.

There is a US investor in Augsburg who has taken over shares.

Borussia Dortmund has just secured around 86 million euros through the sale of new shares. "

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That shows very clearly that it is not only the "exceptional clubs" that are able to raise additional capital, according to Briel.

The 46-year-old does not expect a legal solution by the end of the year - “the topic is too complex for that”.

If the 50 + 1 rule is relaxed or even abolished, fan groups in particular fear that investors could take over the clubs and that they would then no longer have a democratic say.

dpa