The German Football League (DFL) regards antitrust concerns with a view to the Bundesliga clubs Bayer Leverkusen, VfL Wolfsburg and TSG Hoffenheim as unfounded – and would like to resolve them in a “close” dialogue. This emerges from a statement by the DFL to the Federal Cartel Office in the test procedure of the 50 + 1 rule.
“The DFL eV does not share the preliminary assessment that the 50 + 1 rule in its entirety is contrary to antitrust law due to a synopsis of the so-called funding exception,” says the 16-page letter from which kicker and Sports show quote.
In a preliminary assessment, the Bundeskartellamt had classified the rule as harmless under competition law, but assessed the exceptions as being problematic.
According to the 50 + 1 rule, the parent club must always hold the majority of votes in order to limit the influence of investors. In this way, it does not apply to Leverkusen, Wolfsburg and Hoffenheim, because the respective majority owners (Bayer, Volkswagen, Dietmar Hopp) have been doing their work for the respective club for at least 20 years.
The Federal Cartel Office had therefore asked the DFL to design the rule and its exceptions in such a way that they withstand an examination. The DFL does not go into this in its answer, but it would like “in close dialogue with the Federal Cartel Office to resolve the preliminary antitrust concerns”.
“Long-term balance in Bundesliga competition”
According to the DFL, in the preliminary assessment “legal arguments and facts” have in some cases “not yet been adequately taken into account”. The “objectives pursued with the basic rule” would also “not be thwarted by the grant exemptions, but continue consistently in the regulation for the grant exemption – albeit in a different form.”
The DFL is also trying to prove the effectiveness of the current regulation with a balance sheet of the past few years. Since 2010, 17 different Bundesliga clubs have qualified for European club competitions.
This shows the “long-term balance of Bundesliga competition. In no other top European league have more clubs qualified for the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League than in the Bundesliga organized by DFL eV”.
