Who owns the German football? The 50 +1 rule.

An article about how German fans fight for their control on the football clubs, about the 50+1 rule, who owns the German football and how the club-community relationship is maintained alive.

FOOTBALL

Rareș Rădoiu

8/30/20246 min read

The intrigue behind the German football fans' protests

In order to find out who owns the German football clubs, we need to gain a perspective on recent events, and understand the 50+1 rule.

German football is distinguished by a unique ownership model that emphasizes fan involvement and ensures that member associations maintain majority control over clubs. This approach is embodied in the famous "50+1 rule," which limits the influence of external investors and ensures that fans, through their associations, retain control over key club decisions.

Over the years, this rule has been seen as a cornerstone of German football’s identity, maintaining a strong bond between clubs and local communities and protecting the sport from excessive commercial influence.

At the end of 2023, representatives of clubs from the top two German leagues voted in favor of a plan to sell 8% of the shares in a German Football League (DFL) company, which holds the media rights, to an investor for approximately 20 years in exchange for one billion euros. The new investor was expected to contribute to the development of international marketing for the top two leagues and the creation of a streaming platform.

However, this decision sparked massive protests from fans across Germany, leading to interruptions in several matches in the top two leagues. Fans feared that the ownership model, specifically the 50+1 rule, would be jeopardized by the involvement of external investors in German football. The widespread protests succeeded in convincing the leaders of German football to abandon the plan, thus, at least for the time being, the German fans managed to preserve the 50+1 rule and protect German football.

In the following, I will briefly discuss the ownership rule in German football, the involvement of supporters in clubs, and the connection between football clubs and local communities.

The German Football Association (DFB) includes 25,456 clubs with a total of 6.8 million members, making it, as noted on its official website, the largest social network in Germany. German clubs were organized as non-profit organizations until 1998 when the 50+1 rule was introduced. Essentially, the rule allowed private companies to own shares in German football clubs, something that was impossible before 1998, without allowing them to have complete control over the clubs.

What's the 50+1 rule?

For clubs to be eligible to participate in DFL and DFB competitions, the majority shareholders must be the members' associations. In other words, the members' associations must own 50+1% of the club’s shares, thus retaining control over the club's operations. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule.

The most well-known exceptions are Bayer Leverkusen, VfL Wolfsburg, and TSG Hoffenheim.

  • Bayer Leverkusen is owned by Bayer AG, a major pharmaceutical corporation, and has benefited from an exemption from the rule since the early days of the Bundesliga.

  • VfL Wolfsburg is owned by Volkswagen AG, with the exception in this case due to the historical relationship between Volkswagen and the football club.

  • TSG Hoffenheim is partially owned by Dietmar Hopp, co-founder of SAP, who technically adheres to the 50+1 rule, but his significant influence makes this situation perceived as an exception.

  • RB Leipzig is a more recent exception, founded in 2009 by the giant Red Bull GmbH. The majority of shares are held by an association controlled by Red Bull investors, formally adhering to the 50+1 rule.

Who owns the german football? Illustration of a player holding the Bundesliga Cup.
Who owns the german football? Illustration of a player holding the Bundesliga Cup.

The introduction of the 50+1 rule aimed to achieve three main objectives:

  1. to ensure that regardless of changes in ownership, the members' association would control decisions, thus eliminating the possibility of external investors having discretionary control;

  2. to maintain the integrity of sporting competition;

  3. to preserve the connection between professional and amateur football.

To better understand the reasons behind the introduction of the 50+1 rule, we must try to understand the role football plays in German society. Who owns the German football, really?

Looking back to the beginnings of the German football.

Toward the end of the 19th century, when football migrated to Germany, it was met with reluctance and even hostility, being called the "English disease," as Germans considered it un-German, given that it was very different from the sports popular in Germany at the time (Germans then practiced a sport similar to today’s gymnastics).

The middle class began practicing football at the beginning of the 20th century, but from the 1920s, football became popular among the working class, especially in the Rhineland. The popularization of football coincided with the introduction of the 8-hour workday in 1919, which accelerated the emergence of working-class football clubs. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Rhineland underwent a period of industrial development, during which many migrant communities were formed. Many of these, coming from the east, particularly from rural areas, found it difficult to adapt to the new context.

Football became a central factor in building a new common identity, allowing newcomers to western Germany to find their place in society and develop a sense of belonging. Football clubs provided a meeting point and a source of cohesion for people to come together and develop cultural practices, as researcher Udo Merkel suggests.

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Starting in the 1960s, with the creation of the Bundesliga, new football clubs were founded in every major city in Germany. German football began a process of modernization, which was significantly accelerated from the 2000s, when many clubs were listed on the stock exchange and football became commodified. Football detached itself from its working-class roots, re-adapted to the middle class, and the social cohesion between clubs and local communities began to erode.

Who really owns the German football?

The 50+1 rule has, to some extent, prevented the complete separation of clubs from local communities. Today, German clubs still take care of their fans, with the relationship between them being closer than in any other major league in Western Europe. Ticket prices are among the lowest in Europe, encouraging attendance at matches. According to Statista, the Bundesliga has had the highest average attendance among the top five leagues over the last 10 years.

Despite the commercialization of football, matches remain an environment where a sense of belonging can develop, and various identities can be expressed. German fans, by fighting for the 50+1 rule and maintaining control over clubs, have managed to keep the relationship between clubs and communities alive. The 50+1 rule is heavily contested by the business community, and the pressure to change it is increasing in Germany. Once this rule is changed, we will witness a complete break between European football and its supporters, transforming it into a game of big capital and a new source of profit. Football, which once belonged to the fans and played an important social role, is on the verge of changing forever.