Decision by Extraordinary DFL Members Assembly: Talks regarding investor involvement in DFL subsidiary will end for now

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Photo: Getty Images / Sebastian Widmann.

19 May 2021 – This Wednesday, an extraordinary session of the Members Assembly of DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga considered investor offers for a minority interest in a subsidiary of DFL GmbH. Previously, especially in the last year and a half, the DFL had been contacted by various private equity firms expressing interest in a strategic involvement.

In order to carefully assess the opportunities and risks of an investment in the interests of the 36 professional clubs, the DFL spent the last few months examining specific offers from private equity firms and presented them to the Extraordinary Members Assembly today. Having weighed up the facts, the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 clubs decided not to continue the talks at the present time. Independent of this, there was agreement that it is essential that clubs and DFL work together on concepts for accelerating international marketing.

The negotiations focused on a potential entity for the marketing of international media rights, among other things. The renowned investment bank Nomura was charged with organising and guiding the bidding process. The parties agreed not to disclose details of the bids.