The German Bundesliga has existed for decades as an example of a sustainable trading model. With 90% of its star players coming from the teams' own academies and more than half of these players trained in the high-performance centers of the German educational system, it based its profitability on cheap tickets, full stadiums and signings. comedos: the democratization of football.
There is no Messi or Ronaldo, the German competition puffed out its chest with numerous like Thomas Müller, Mario Götze or Manuel Neuer, also the ability to awaken their particular passions. German fans shamelessly boasted of "real football", which they contrasted with football based on checkbooks
millionaire records.
That was the Bundesliga when it received an important wake-up call, in 2000, when the team was eliminated from the European Championship without winning a solo game. Something was wrong. The German Football Federation reacted with pressure with new measures by imposing and placing professional coaches in youth academies, which allowed the situation to be patched up until the 2006 World Cup, but from there the fall was accentuating and the pandemic seems to be giving the final touch to this way of listening to football. The coronavirus has caused the Bundesliga to lose some 1.300 million euros, an amount that represents much more for its business figures than for other European leagues. In addition, when the stadiums have been open to the public again, many fans have not returned to the field. Boredom seems to be killing the other valued business model.
15 percent of the places in the stadiums are still deserted
Despite the capacity restrictions still in force, 15 percent of the places enabled in German stadiums continue to be deserted. It has even become fashionable among German fans to admit they are disenchanted and display their detachment from the beautiful game.
Other European competitions have always suffered due to the coronavirus, but they continue to have the support of the fans. The British Premier League, for example, has seen its revenues drop by 13%, to 5.226 million euros, according to a Deloitte report from last June, but it regained full capacity with the European Championship, with up to 60.000 spectators in the stands. Wembley.
“The full financial impact of the pandemic was marked by the time when fans returned to the stadiums in significant numbers and the ability of clubs to maintain and develop their business relationships”
"The full financial impact of the pandemic was marked by the moment when fans returned to the stadiums in significant numbers and the ability of clubs to maintain and develop their commercial relationships, at a time when many sectors are also changing," he explained. Dan Jones, partner and director of sports at Deoitte.
Another factor in the British recovery has undoubtedly been the decision taken in May. The UK government's view of providing more funding to lower division teams prevailed in exchange for authorization to extend television contracts with Sky, BT Sport and Amazon from the 2022-2023 season to the 2024-2025 season.
The 20 clubs of the English first division have given 116 million euros to the lower leagues, which add to the 163 corresponding to the "solidarity payment" of each season, a mechanism that allows the little ones to remain in the transfer market. It is the way in which the Premier League equalizes from above, while the Bundesliga is still determined to equalize from below and even threatens to extend its policy to the rest of Europe.
employee control
The new Bundesliga player, Donata Hopfen, now wants to limit the salaries of professionals. "Football would do itself a favor if players' salaries were regulated," she says, justifying her proposal, "because this would strengthen equal opportunities within Europe." “We may be competitors, but we have common interests on the crucial points. And politics in Europe should also be interested in fair competition in a common market”, she adds.
Hopfen acknowledges that "thanks to the star players people go to the stadium, buy shirts or a subscription to a pay TV channel, but I can also hear that the salaries of those players are moving in dimensions that are difficult to hear." He admits that "any measure that brings us money can now be convenient for us and should not be ruled out in advance", when asked if he conceives a Super Cup with teams from Saudi Arabia, like the one with the Spanish teams, but for now he will focus on move the earth under the feet of the richest teams. "I already said when I took office at the beginning of the year that there are no sacred cows for me," he said, glancing at Bayern München.
league reform
Another reason why the German fans lose interest, according to Hopfen's diagnosis, is that the same team always wins. Since 2013, Bayern München have won 9 consecutive cups and are on their way to their XNUMXth. If in Gary Lineker's time football consisted of "eleven against eleven and in the end Germany wins", the number of players has not changed since then, but now those from Munich always win. To adjust this, the Bundesliga has proposed a reform of the championship that its object will destroy the hegemony of Bayern, which will benefit from the resignation of the move. The established formula is that, at the end of the season, the title is disputed by the top four finishers, either in a single-game league or with two semi-finals and one final.
Bayern Chairman of the Board of Directors Oliver Kahn has stated that the club is open to any strategy that would help increase the excitement of the league. “I find it interesting to soberly discuss the new models, a Bundesliga with semi-finals and a final that would add drama and encourage the fans”, he declared.
The majority of the clubs, however, are against this proposal, according to a 'Kicker' sound. The enemies of the new format argued that the income that would be generated by television rights would benefit the big clubs more and would open the gap with the small ones. Christian Seigert has even spoken of a "cultural breakdown."
Bayern's honorary president, Uli Hoeness, is one of those who speak out vehemently against what he calls the 'anti-Bayern law'. “It's ridiculous, that has nothing to do with emotion. In the Budesliga, after 34 games, the champion must be the one who has gone through thick and thin with his team”, he says. Hoeness has no answer, however, for the millennial generation's disaffection with football, another factor in the bankruptcy and one that is not unique to the German league.
“Football needs to know and take into account the wishes and conditions of young fans. If it fails to do this, it risks losing a generation of fans and falling into a financial vacuum," says Florian Follert, sports economist at Schloss Seeburg University, "ultimately that could jeopardize the entire business model. «.
generational change
The Alpha and Z generations, the teenagers and young adults who are expected to fill the stands in the coming decades, do not seem to have any intention of stepping onto the field. Rüdiger Maas, an expert on Generation Z at the Institute for Generation Research, confirmed that the canon of youth values fits even worse with today's football and warns that the economic disaster will manifest itself in ten years.
"When today's 50- or 60-year-old fans no longer go to the stadium, there will be no retirement, if we stick to the tastes and hobbies of the next generation." Maas speaks of soccer as one more of the “modern traditions” and classifies the soccer game in the category of “static events”, which are no longer interesting for the Z and Alpha generations. The matches are too long, the football itself is too slow and there is not enough digital interaction. Florian Follert added: "Today, children and young people have less free time for football and are inclined towards active games or passive consumption."
According to an Allensbach survey, 22,7 million Germans are still "very enthusiastic" about football. But there are 28 million Germans who are "little or not at all interested" in the so-called national sport, three million more than in 2017. A 2019 study by the Carat media agency concluded that, including before the pandemic, more than two-thirds of young people between the ages of 15 and 23 have “little or no interest” in football. And among those who follow a team, only 38% went to the field.
The 'ghost' seasons have only made that situation worse, but Germany continues to resist the football of the stars. “We are at a point where we have to have a serious discussion. Quo vadis, German football?” warns Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, “I recommend looking beyond our borders, for example to England. In Germany we have tried for a long time to sit out some things, but this inevitably leads to problems, both nationally and internationally."
