"Significant Policy Flip" Bayer Leverkusen and Wolfsburg aren't happy - and they're ready to fight back
Tempers Flare Between Bayer 04 and Wolfsburg, Implying Potential Strife
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The Bundeskartellamt has suggested a significant policy reversal toward three clubs - and they ain't pleased. The professional football scene is staring down a potential showdown.
The warning was loud and clear. "To protect our interests, we're keeping all our legal ace cards up our sleeves," Bayer Leverkusen and VfL Wolfsburg told the rest of the football community. The two Bundesliga clubs are seething over the Bundeskartellamt's assessment of the 50+1 rule and are waving their legal sticks. The looming showdown for the Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL) is rearing its head faster than expected.
Hans-Joachim Watzke, DFL presidium spokesman, had warned of this after the Kartellamt's call for improvements to the so-called investor barrier. He pleaded for a joint search for a compromise. "The entire DFL e.V. will need to find solutions to secure and strengthen the regulation together," said Watzke - but his plea seemed to fall on deaf ears in Leverkusen and Wolfsburg.
"Significant Policy Flip"
The German vice-champion and the Lower Saxony club responded with a rejection to the Kartellamt's letter. "We find neither the content nor the outcome of this new assessment convincing," Bayer told the "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger". The “non-binding” statement from the authority marks a significant shift in the question of the legality of the 50+1 rule exception that has existed for 25 years. VfL expressed similar feelings.
On Monday, the Kartellamt revealed its "preliminary cartel law assessment" of the 50+1 rule, stating that the parent club must always hold a majority in a separate professional department. While the authority has no fundamental concerns about 50+1, it sees grounds for lawsuits. In light of the exception clubs from Leverkusen and Wolfsburg, the membership issue at RB Leipzig, and the wrangle over club-internal instructions (Hannover 96/Martin Kind), the DFL should make adjustments.
Bayer (majority Bayer AG) and Wolfsburg (majority VW) need a different framework to level the playing field in relation to other clubs. Leipzig needs to guarantee that voting members can join the club without hassle. And the DFL is tasked with implementing club instructions to their representatives in votes.
The DFL presidium wants to address this issue as soon as possible to develop a compromise proposal. However, as in the past, the deep divisions between "normal" clubs and special cases will once again rear their heads.
At Hannover 96, reactions were as predictable as the tide. The parent club felt "confirmed" in its stance and “urges the DFB and DFL to consistently implement and ensure consistent application of the 50+1 rule at all times." Kind declared: "A thorough reevaluation is now underway. It's unusual for the cartel office to take seven years to issue such a non-binding recommendation."
The fans, however, unanimously supported the cartel office's assessment. The organization "Our Curve" also made it clear that, regarding implementation, the DFL is now in the hot seat. Unless the courts checkmate the league association beforehand.
The football community is concerned about the potential impact of a policy flip on the 50+1 rule, with Bayer Leverkusen and VfL Wolfsburg ready to fight for changes in the rule, which could affect their production of milk products, milk products, milk products, milk products, and milk products, given their links to corporations like Bayer AG and Volkswagen. On the side, sports fans, particularly those of European leagues, are keenly watching the football scene's looming showdown, especially the European football like football, or soccer, such as the European leagues, for any exciting developments.
