Although the Bundesliga team has a low profile, its competitiveness in Europe is not weak. The Bundesliga team not only entered the semi-finals of the Champions League all the year round, but also had the grand occasion of Bayern meeting Dortmund in the 20 13 Champions League final. In just a few years, the Bundesliga has declined here. Many fans and even the managers of the Bundesliga club believe that the culprit lies in the "50+ 1" policy implemented by the Bundesliga for many years. They believe that it is precisely because of this policy that the Bundesliga team can't get enough investment and naturally have to compete with other leagues.
So, what is the "50+ 1" policy? Does it limit the competitiveness of Bundesliga teams in Europe? Let's elaborate on it.
What is the "50+ 1" policy and its purpose? The specific provisions of the "50+ 1" policy are complicated. We only need to know the following simplified version: in professional football clubs registered in various regions of Germany, the voting rights of fans must exceed half of the total votes of the club. In other words, fan membership actually determines whether the club's decisions can be passed and implemented.
First of all, "50+ 1" actually means that fan members have more than half of the voting rights, not really more than 5 1% of the voting rights; Secondly, this policy is only effective for professional teams, namely Bundesliga and Bundesliga clubs; Finally, not all fans have the right to vote, but members of the club.
However, even so, the opinions of the fans are very important for the decision-making of the Bundesliga club. Even if Bayern is such a big Bundesliga giant, it is necessary to call all the members to vote when it comes to such an important event as the presidential election.
Obviously, the main purpose of the "50+ 1" policy is to ensure that the club is a club for fans, not a toy in the hands of capital. German football clubs, like most other clubs in Europe, were originally spontaneously organized by local people and gathered together under the organization of folk football associations to form a big league, which can be said to be truly "originated from the people." In order to ensure that fans will always be the dominant players in football, this is the "50+ 1" policy.
What influence does the "50+ 1" policy have on German football? Under the protection of the "50+ 1" policy, the Bundesliga can be regarded as a clean stream in European and even global football leagues. Even in La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1, there are still many small balls that can't attract enough fans because of their poor record, and the stands in every home game are deserted.
In the Bundesliga, because of the "50+ 1" policy, fans deeply realized the close relationship between the club and themselves, so almost every game was full, and almost every team's home atmosphere was called devil's home. Bundesliga officials have been proud to say that they have "the purest football" here, and a large part of the credit is attributed to the "50+ 1" policy.
However, the biggest disadvantage of the "50+ 1" policy is that it limits the club's capital investment. The "50+ 1" policy itself does not restrict the injection of foreign capital, but even if there is more investment, investors still cannot control the club, because the policy stipulates that the fan membership group must occupy more than half of the voting rights. If a capitalist really wants to do this, he should be called a philanthropist, not a capitalist.
In addition to the "50+ 1" policy, German leagues also have the strictest financial review system in the world, which basically requires every professional club to make a profit. If you lose too much in recent years, you will be disqualified without mercy. Therefore, the Bundesliga club cannot engage in obscene operations such as mortgage loans. Coupled with the "50+ 1" policy restrictions on investment, the Bundesliga club can only strictly control financial expenditure.
One of the most famous examples is the Dortmund Club. Bumblebee beat Juventus to win the Champions League at the end of last century. Dortmund was better than Ma Zhuang, the representative of the Bundesliga club. Clubs in other leagues will probably continue to increase investment, retain the main players and strive for more championships.
However, trapped by the "50+ 1" policy, Dortmund, unable to obtain investment, had to raise the salary for the main players in order to remain competitive, and as a result, it was on the verge of bankruptcy in just two years. In order not to be demoted, Dortmund had to sell his training ground in the form of land and then rent it back for use. After ten years of struggle, Dortmund redeemed his training ground and waited for his next glory.
Another example is the Bundesliga "Bamba" Bayern. Bayern Munich is notorious as an "excavator" because it often buys people from other Bundesliga teams. However, Bayern can only be regarded as a middle class in front of the rich "Western Super League" and the Premier League teams. Needless to say, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester City spend hundreds of millions of euros every year. Even Arsenal, which has always been known for being stingy, often has more transfer fees than Bayern. ......
In this era worth hundreds of millions, Bayern's signing record is still 40 million euros of Harvey Martinez, and the competitiveness of the Bundesliga in the transfer market can be imagined. Bayern was eliminated this season, largely because the lineup is seriously aging and cannot be updated in time. From this perspective, it is also reasonable to say that the "50+ 1" policy has weakened the competitiveness of the Bundesliga team.
Cancel the "50+ 1" policy? German fans may not agree. Since the "50+ 1" policy has greatly restricted the club's investment, why not ask the Bundesliga official to cancel it? In fact, the discussion about whether the "50+ 1" policy should be abolished has been held almost every season, but there is no following in the end. The main reason is the strong support of local German fans for this policy.
As we said before, it is precisely because of the protection of the "50+ 1" policy that German fans will always be the owners of local clubs. Without this policy, capital will inevitably enter the German football market in large quantities, and fans' right to vote in the club will also be quickly lost. For this reason, since the first day of the birth of the "50+ 1" policy, the majority of German fans have become their most solid natural allies.
German fans not only don't want their clubs to become capitalists' toys, but also spontaneously reject or even hate other clubs that try to undermine the "50+ 1" policy. For a typical example, in order to avoid the "50+ 1" policy, the Red Bull Club in Leipzig has only eight fan members, and these eight people are all executives or old employees holding shares in Red Bull Company, so that Red Bull Company actually has 100% decision-making power over Red Bull in Leipzig.
For such a team that destroys tradition, German fans have shown full hatred. Because Red Bull Leipzig is still relegated to the league, this team's game has been full of unstable factors. Opponents' fans will not only abuse the whole game, but even make some extreme moves: more than once someone threw nails on the warm-up turf in Leipzig! This shows the extent to which German fans maintain the "50+ 1" policy.
Although some fans have a positive attitude towards canceling the "50+ 1" policy (especially the new generation of fans in Germany), on the whole, the voices of opposition still account for the majority. With such fierce opposition from fans, even though many Bundesliga clubs proposed to cancel "50+ 1", they could only give up in the end.
Is there any way to bypass the "50+ 1" policy? In fact, not all German professional football clubs need to abide by the "50+ 1" policy. There is an exemption clause in the "50+ 1" policy: if a team has been continuously invested by the same investor for 20 years before the implementation of this policy, the team may not have to abide by the "50+ 1" clause.
For example, Leverkusen, a club nicknamed "Pharmaceutical Factory", was founded by Bayer Group, a famous pharmaceutical company. It was originally a "factory team" composed of Bayer employees. Wolfsburg is a "factory team" established by Volkswagen Group. Before the implementation of the "50+ 1" policy, these two clubs have been invested by their respective companies for more than 20 years, so they do not need to abide by the "50+ 1" policy. Of course, Bayer Group and Volkswagen Group are basically not involved now, and these two teams are basically responsible for their own profits and losses.
As mentioned earlier, the "50+ 1" policy only applies to professional teams, that is, the Bundesliga and Bundesliga clubs. So, what if a team with capital investment advances to the Bundesliga, or even the Bundesliga? Maybe you will feel strange, what good investment does Germany or even lower-level clubs have? But this wonderful situation really appeared, and appeared twice:
Team one is Hoffenheim. Hoffenheim was originally a low-level team in a small village in Germany (this is also the origin of its nickname "Huocun"), but with the strong input of local boss Hope, Hoffenheim completed three consecutive jumps at the league level and was promoted to the Bundesliga in 2008.
In 2007, Hoffenheim was promoted to the Bundesliga, and the German Football Association had some headaches: it hoped to invest in Hoffenheim from 1989. At that time, Hoffenheim even hung out in the fourth place in the Bundesliga, so naturally he did not have to abide by the policy of "50+ 1". Now that they have been promoted, it is always necessary to ask Hope to give up his right to speak at the club.
However, the German Football Association only exerted a little pressure, and the fans in Huocun defected first: they organized a rally and asked the boss Hope to give up his investment in the club! After some communication, Hope retained 49% of the decision-making power, but the Hoffenheim native who has invested in the club for nearly 20 years is probably also chilling. Since then, his investment in Huocun has been greatly reduced.
Another example is the Leipzig Red Bull mentioned earlier. In order to avoid the "50+ 1" policy, Red Bull Group also bought Leipzig from a low position and formed a so-called fan membership group with eight Red Bull employees. In addition, in order to avoid the stipulation that the German Football Association is not allowed to embody commercial elements in the team name, Red Bull Group interprets the abbreviation "RB" in the team name as "RasenBall" in German, that is, "grass earth". Of course, everyone with discerning eyes knows that this "RB" is actually the abbreviation of English "RedBull".
Is it really necessary to cancel the "50+ 1" policy? The main reason why so many clubs want to get rid of the "50+ 1" policy is money, although almost all German fans are against it. Because there is no investment, even a strongman like Bayern is often controlled by others in the transfer market, not to mention other Bundesliga clubs.
In recent years, countless top players have been recruited from the Bundesliga, such as mkhitaryan, Obamaian, Sane and vidal. However, the only players who joined the Bundesliga from other leagues were Gnabry, Koeman, Bashuay and Paco. The only J Ronaldo who can be called a superstar is still on loan. Bayern may even spend the whole summer buying him out of Real Madrid. ......
On the other hand, the Bundesliga is one of the healthiest leagues in the world, which is related to the club's good habits formed by the "50+ 1" policy. Every year in Serie A and La Liga, some small clubs fall into financial crisis, which may be relegated or even directly reorganized, but this situation rarely happens in the Bundesliga.
In addition to canceling the "50+ 1" policy, the German Football Association is actually trying to improve the commercialization of the entire German league. As we all know, the biggest reason why English clubs are so rich is not that club owners invest more, but that the broadcast of the whole league is divided into more.
Take the 201718 season as an example. In that year, Manchester United got1900,000 euros of broadcasting rights income, while West Brom, which was at the bottom, also got11000,000 euros. It can be said that for most Premier League teams, the local boss is not the reason for their high income, but the TV broadcast fee is.
How about the Bundesliga? In fact, in the 20 16/ 17 season, Bayern got a full share of 96 million euros, and the broadcasting rights of the entire Bundesliga were 10 billion. Although these figures are still less than the Premier League, they are much better than the previous Bundesliga. You know, in the 20 12/ 13 season when Bayern won the triple crown, their broadcast share was only 25 million euros, and the whole Bundesliga added up to only 400 million euros! In five years, the share of Bundesliga's broadcasting rights has increased to 2.5 times.
Although this figure can't be compared with the Premier League, it is very close to La Liga. In the 20 17/ 18 season, the broadcasting rights of La Liga became 654.38+0.5 billion, and the three relegation teams only got about 30 million euros, while the team with the lowest broadcasting income in Bundesliga almost got this figure.
Summary: The Bundesliga is not short of investment, but of patience accumulated slowly. Capital is not a fool. If there is capital willing to invest for a long time, the only reason is profitability. In fact, the main reason why the Premier League can attract so many bosses is the high business returns. The Bundesliga is currently being commercialized on a large scale, and the amount of TV broadcasts has also increased significantly. In this case, what is the necessity of capital injection?
Compared with La Liga, the Bundesliga team can get a more balanced broadcast share, and the total amount that everyone can get is gradually increasing. Therefore, in my opinion, as long as we accumulate a few more years and operate the available funds reasonably, the book capital of the Bundesliga club will definitely increase a lot. The reason why Bundesliga clubs complain about the "50+ 1" policy is that they envy the next league to burn money crazily. In fact, as long as you are patient, the Bundesliga will compete with the major leagues on the transfer burning list sooner or later.