By Andrew Lord

14 August 2022

Debates about the 50+1 rule have re-emerged after Bayern Munich CEO Oliver Kahn claimed that its abolition would create much-needed competition in the Bundesliga. The call came before the Bavarians crushed Eintracht Frankfurt 6-1 in the season opener, a result which further demonstrates Bayern Munich’s domination of German football.

Essentially, the 50+1 rule ensures that commercial investors in Bundesliga clubs are not able to own a majority stake, as clubs are owned by their members.

The ownership model also means that the Bundesliga is able to avoid the type of situation in the English Premier League which has seen unpopular owners, Russian oligarchs and Gulf states take over some of the world’s best-known clubs.

The ownership rule also meant that Germany’s top clubs such as Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund were not involved in the ill-fated European Super League in 2021. Not only from a moral stance, but also because those in charge at the clubs would not have been able to force through membership of the proposed league.

It is also felt that the ownership rules in German football is the main reason behind the cheaper season tickets and matchday tickets when compared with the Premier League.

Stifling investment

However, critics of 50+1 point out that the rule is stifling investment in the Bundesliga, which is critical in order to compete at the highest level in European football, especially after rich owners began looking beyond the English Premier League with Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, becoming the owner of Paris Saint-Germain through Qatar Sports Investments.

The situation has been exacerbated by an exodus of talented young players from the Bundesliga, attracted by the wealth and prestige of Premier League clubs. In recent years German football has lost Jadon Sancho to Manchester United, Kai Havertz, Christian Pulisic to Chelsea. This summer Erling Haaland left Borussia Dortmund to sign for Manchester City.

But the exodus has not only affected top Bundesliga clubs as newly promoted Premier League side Nottingham Forest has raided the Bundesliga, signing Nigerian striker Taiwo Awoniyi from Union Berlin in a €20.5 million deal, Moussa Niakhaté, a €10 million signing from  Mainz 05 and midfielder Orel Mangala, who joined the Premier League club from VfB Stuttgart for €13 million.

While the 50+1 rule is viewed as a sacred cow in Germany, protecting clubs from the claws of commercially-oriented owners, these transfers show it has not been able to protect Bundesliga sides from losing players to cash-rich Premier League clubs.

Exceptions to the rule

There are also exceptions to the 50+1 rule in the Bundesliga. VfL Wolfsburg, founded in 1945, is owned by Volkswagen, Bayer Leverkusen is run by the pharmaceutical company Bayer and in 2014, Dietmar Hopp, one of the founders of SAP, was given permission to own a 96% stake in Hoffenheim.

In a statement released shortly after the decision, the DFL stated: “Crucial in the assessment of Hoffenheim’s request was that for more than 20 years Dietmar Hopp has provided considerable financial support for both the professional as well as the amateur teams of the club.”

While Wolfsburg and Leverkusen are referred to as a Werkself or factory eleven, the more visceral hatred is reserved for the billionaire Hopp. In 2020, with Bayern Munich leading 6-0 over Hoffenheim, an insulting banner about Hopp was unveiled by away fans at the Rhein-Neckar-Arena. Both teams played out the remaining six minutes uncontested and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Chairman of the Executive Board of Bayern Munich at the time, showed his support for Hopp after the final whistle.

RB Leipzig is another club to face the scorn of Bundesliga fans. The club, which is owned by the Austrian energy drink manufacturer Red Bull, purchased the licence of SSV Markranstädt, a club in the fifth tier of German football, in 2009. RB Leipzig also circumvented a ban on clubs being named after sponsors by calling themselves Rasenballsport Leipzig, but using the nomenclature RB Leipzig wherever possible.

Nevertheless, calls for the abolition of the rule have grown more vociferous after Bayern Munich made it ten Bundesliga titles in a row, with proponents claiming the ownership changes would make the league more competitive.

In the latest argument over the 50+1 rule, Bayern Munich CEO Oliver Kahn said its abolition would result in advantages for the Bundesliga and, of course, for his own club.

Kahn told German football magazine 11 Freunde: “We need to consider the point of the 50+1 rule.” However, Hans-Joachim Watzke, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the DFL, declared that a debate is unnecessary because in the coming years there would be no changes with him in charge, adding “that is 100% certain.”

Kahn stated that he did not take on his job to make new friends, but rather to keep Bayern Munich at the top. But he added: “For this to happen we need a top-quality league. Our objective remains becoming German champions every year. Nevertheless, it can be assumed that our competitors would be able to become stronger if the 50+1 rule is abolished.”

Watzke versus Bayern Munich

The clash between Watzke and Kahn follows a similar disagreement between the Borussia Dortmund CEO and Uli Hoeness, honorary Bayern Munich president, last month.

Watzke described claims that success is not possible with the 50+1 in place as nonsense, citing not only the example of Eintracht Frankfurt’s Europa League victory, but also Real Madrid’s victory over Liverpool in the Champions League final: “Not only Frankfurt’s success proves that I’m right, so does the Champions League victory. Real Madrid won and they are clearly a 50+1 club as the president is still elected by the members.” He added that there are countless clubs with big investors, which have not yet won the Champions League despite having unlimited financial resources.

The majority of Bundesliga fans agree with Watzke. In a recent RTL News poll, 72% said that Bundesliga clubs should not belong to investors, while 22% were of the opinion that the 50+1 rule should be abolished to avoid the Bundesliga to avoid falling behind in Europe.

Back in 2016, Watzke expressed fears about a change to the 50+1 rule in an interview with German magazine Sport Bild: “I don’t want the fans to be milked as they are in England.”

For Watzke, the rule ensures a close relationship between football clubs and their fans: “The German spectator traditionally has close ties with his club. And if he gets the feeling that he’s no longer regarded as a fan but instead as a customer, we’ll have a problem.”

He also saw a threat to fan culture in the Bundesliga through investors unrestrained by checks and balances: “An investor in Dortmund would soon turn 28,000 standing places into 15,000 seats, which would guarantee several million euros more per year,” he added.

In 2009, Hannover 96 president Martin Kind, submitted a motion to change the 50+1 rule, but Hannover 96 was the only club to vote for the proposal, with 32 out of 35 clubs from the top two leagues of the Bundesliga voting against, with three abstentions.

Dr Reinhard Rauball, the League Association president, said after the vote: “The Bundesliga is remaining true to its principles and maintaining its reliance on the factors which have made a decisive contribution to the success of the professional game in Germany in recent decades: stability, continuity and proximity to fans.”

In 2018, Kind failed in a bid to assume majority control of Hannover 96 when his application for an exemption from the 50+1 rule was rejected by the DFL. In justification of its decision, the DFL ruled that Kind had not made considerable investment in the club over a period of at least 20 years.

According to Kahn, the 50+1 rule has become an ideology and anyone “who questions the concept or even just stimulates a discussion, is automatically the baddie.”

Christian Heidel, CEO of Mainz 05, issued a warning to those advocating the abolition of the rule. “I don’t want a small second division club to be bought by a millionaire and suddenly be challenging for the Bundesliga title.” He stated that such a development would completely alter German football.

Bundesliga clubs have a tough decision to make, do they keep the status quo and continue to allow Bayern Munich to dominate the league and lose players to the English Premier League or do they open the Pandora’s box of inviting investors to take control of Germany’s best football clubs in an attempt to compete with the richest league in the world?

© Andrew Lord 2022