I think the Germans have it made

[Liverpool lad]

How the Bundesliga puts the Premier League to shame

 

With cheap ticket prices and sound financial management, the Bundesliga is the antithesis of the Premier League

 

Borussia Dortmund's Westfalenstadion is home to the world's largest stand, where the average ticket price is just €15. Photograph: Michael Sohn/AP

 

In Germany the fan is king. The Bundesliga has the lowest ticket prices and the highest average attendance of Europe's five major leagues. At Borussia Dortmund their giant stand holds 26,000 and costs little more than £10 for admission. Clubs limit the number of season tickets to ensure everyone has a chance to see the games, and the away team has the right to 10% of the available capacity. Match tickets double as free rail passes with supporters travelling in a relaxed atmosphere in which they can sing, drink beer to wash down their sausages, and are generally treated as desirables: a philosophy English fans can only dream of.

 

The Bundesliga may be Europe's only fit and proper football league – the sole major domestic competition whose clubs collectively make a profit – yet no German team has won the Champions League for nine years. This success rate, though, could be about to change following Bayern Munich's advance to the semi-finals, following their thrilling disposal of Manchester United last week at Old Trafford.

 

"The Bundesliga as a brand, a competition, is in good shape. We have a very, very interesting competition, a stable and sustainable business model that relies on three revenue sources," the Bundesliga chief executive, Christian Seifert, tells Observer Sport. A holy trinity comprising match-day revenue (€424m), sponsorship receipts (€573m) and broadcast income (€594m) is the main contributor to the Bundesliga's €1.7bn turnover.

 

A glance at the continent's other major leagues confirms the state the sport is in. On these shores Portsmouth dice with extinction, while Manchester United and Liverpool build mammoth debt mountains. In Spain, where debts are just as high, La Liga players may strike because of unpaid wages in the lower divisions. The stadiums of Italy are half-filled, and in France their clubs spend more of their income (71%) on players' wages than those of any country.

 

Seifert says the success of the Bundesliga is because of the "core value" of the supporter coming first at its clubs. This is why tickets are kept so cheap. "Because the clubs don't ask for more money," he explains. "It is not in the clubs' culture so much [to raise prices]. They are very fan orientated. The Bundesliga has €350m less per season than the Premier League in matchday revenues. But you could not from one day to another triple prices.

 

"Borussia Dortmund has the biggest stand in the world. The Yellow Wall holds 26,000, and the average ticket price is €15 (£13) because they know how valuable such a fan culture and supporter base is.

 

"We have a very interesting situation. First, tickets are cheap. Second, many clubs limit the percentage of season tickets. For instance, Borussia Dortmund, Schalke 04, Hamburg, Bayern Munich. They want to give more fans the chance to watch games live. If you have 80%, 100% then it is all the same people in the stadium. Also in Germany the guest club has the right to 10% of the tickets for its fans."

 

Last season La Liga attracted an average of 28,478 fans, Ligue 1 21,034, Serie A 25,304 and the Premier League 35,592. These figures are dwarfed by the Bundesliga's average of 41,904. Its soaring attendances are matched by a balanced approach to salaries. "The crucial thing in last year's €1.7bn turnover and €30m profit was that Bundesliga clubs paid less than 50% of revenue in players wages," Seifert says. This is the continent's lowest. In 2007‑08 [the most recent available year] the Premier League paid out 62%.

 

All this prudent financial management is achieved despite the Bundesliga's television income being a modest €594m compared with the Premier League's lucrative return of €1.94bn. Seifert explains the disparity. "The TV market in Germany is very special. When pay-TV was introduced in 1991 the average household already received 34 channels for free. Therefore we had the most competitive free TV market in the world, so this influenced the growth of pay-TV very much. We were forced to show all of the 612 games of the Bundesliga and second Bundesliga live on pay-TV. So we have to carry the production costs of this."

 

No Bundesliga team has won the Champions League since Bayern Munich beat Valencia in 2001 and its last finalist was Bayer Leverkusen, eight years ago. But Seifert disputes whether the small return from television rights has been a defining factor in this record. "Money-wise, Bayern Munich is ranked in the first four clubs of Europe. And bear in mind even Chelsea, which spent a hell of a lot of money in the last years, didn't win it. Sometimes you could have the feeling that the ability to win the Champions League goes in line with your willingness to burn a hell of a lot of money. For that reason I think Uefa is on very good track with their financial fair play idea."

 

Deloitte's accountancy figures for the 2007-08 season show all but one Premier League club (Aston Villa) to be in debt. Compare this with the Bundesliga report for last season, which offers a markedly disappointed tone when recording that "only 11 of the 18 clubs are now in the black".

 

Pressed further on the lack of success in Europe's premier club competition Seifert argues for sport's cyclical nature. "At the end of the 1990s the Bundesliga was the strongest in Europe. In 1997 we had won the Champions League [borussia Dortmund] and the Uefa Cup [schalke]," he says.

 

"Then in 1999, 2001 and 2002 we were in the final at least. In those days the Premier League had more money, too. It depends not only on money but the quality you have – if it only depended on money then Porto wouldn't have played Monaco in the 2004 final."

 

Seifert also points to German football's success in producing its own players. This is borne out by Germany being European champions at under-17, under-19, and under-21 level. "The Bundesliga and German FA made a right decision 10 years ago when they decided that to obtain a licence to play you must run an education camp [academy]. The Bundesliga and second Bundesliga spend €75m a year on these camps.

 

"Five thousand players aged 12-18 are educated there, which has now made the number of under-23-year-olds in the Bundesliga 15%. Ten years ago it was 6%. This allows more money to be spent on the players that are bought, and there is a bigger chance to buy better, rather than average, players," Seifert says of a league in which the stellar performers currently include Bayern's Frank Ribéry and Arjen Robben.

 

"When Bayern played against Manchester United Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Holger Badstuber and Thomas Müller were all homegrown," Seifert says. "So yes, it's a cyclical environment and you have to deal with that. Therefore I'd deny that you could really say whether a league is strong or weak just because one club wins or does not win the Champions League."

 

Seifert's view is supported by Arsenal having followed United out of the competition last week, when Arsène Wenger's team were dismantled by Barcelona, to leave no Premier League presence in the semi-finals for the first time since 2003. And for the 2012-13 season Germany should have four places in the Champions League as by then they should have overtaken Serie A in Uefa's five-year coefficients.

 

Seifert also has Spain in his sights. "If we consider our financial capabilities and the stability of our business model, then the aim of the Bundesliga in the long run has got to be second place behind the Premier League," he says.

 

Of all the Bundesliga's regulations, the recent history of English football suggests it might have benefited most from the 50+1 rule. This states that members of a club must retain at least 51% ownership, so preventing any single entity taking control. Portsmouth are the most glaring example of how an outsider might potentially ruin a club – their administrator is currently searching for their fifth owner of this season – and the Bundesliga recently reiterated the commitment to the rule following a challenge from Hannover 96.

 

Martin Kind, Hannover's president, wished to change the regulation. He told Observer Sport: "The rule means the loss of many Bundesliga clubs' ability to compete nationally and internationally. And in some ways it prevents further development of German football, especially those clubs who play in the lower half of the Bundesliga as they do not have enough financial resources. The ownership rule should be abandoned or modified."

 

While Kind adds that his lawyers believe he has a "good chance" of winning the case when it is heard at the court of arbitration for sport this year, Seifert is proud that when the 36 clubs that comprise the Bundesliga's two divisions voted on the issue "35 were against".

 

There are exceptions to the 50+1 rule. Yet even these appear couched in common sense. Seifert again: "Bayer Leverkusen and Wolfsburg [whom Fulham knocked out of the Europa Cup on Thursday] are two. If a company is supporting football in a club for more than 20 years then it can acquire the majority. The idea is that a company has by then proved to fans and the league that they take their engagement in the Bundesliga seriously, that it's not just a fancy toy or part-time cash injection that [could] change from one day to another."

 

What the Bundesliga does allow to be transformed from one season to the next is the prospect of any and all its clubs mounting a realistic tilt at the title as Wolfsburg's triumph, the first in their 64-year history, proved last season.

 

"In the last three years of the Bundesliga we have three different cup winners and three different champions," Seifert says. "Sepp Herberger, the coach of the West German team that won the 1954 World Cup, said: 'You know why people go to the stadium? Because they don't know how it ends.'"

[Crazyhorse7778]

Good read.

[Liverpool lad]

Sustainability is the key, and I think the Premiership is too reliant upon the Sky money. We have milked the game for all it is worth over here, and the next 4-5 seasons could see a lot of clubs fall by the wayside. It has started in the lower leagues, and it is creeping up now.

[Kevin D]

[Jose Jones]

Yeah Germany has it spot on.

There is no way they can bring in anything similar in England though, the big clubs rule the premier league and the FA.

The clubs would just break away again if they tried to bring in any ownership rules.

That doesn’t stop individual clubs from being well run though. Fucking Moores.

[Wor Horse]

I cunting miss Sami.

[Joso]

I cunting miss Sami.

 

I like that verb.

[nickjt]

34 free tv channels in 1991! The Germans have got it made, their so fucking clever.

 

Read a similar piece to this in 442. Oh how the English laughed about a 5 year dominance in the champions league. All the while the wiley Germans have just efficiently gone about building by far the best footballing model.

[The Tott]

I cunting miss Sami.

 

Me too man, me too.

[RedinSweden]

I like that verb.

 

I would say that is more of an adverb.

[Rex Banner]

The premier league will never be like that, there are to many fat cats who just don't care until the money is gone.

[Jose Jones]

The premier league will never be like that, there are to many fat cats who just don't care until the money is gone.

 

Indeed.

I also don’t think fans would have accepted a few years of hard medicine for long term gain 5 or 10 years ago, either, and I reckon a lot of fans still wouldn’t, particularly of the bigger and nouveau riche clubs.

[Gav]

Yeah Germany has it spot on.

There is no way they can bring in anything similar in England though, the big clubs rule the premier league and the FA.

The clubs would just break away again if they tried to bring in any ownership rules.

That doesn’t stop individual clubs from being well run though. Fucking Moores.

 

It does though ,because fan demends mean that whoever was in charge would spend all their time and cash keeping up with the joneses.

I've seen it first hand albeit on a smaller scale in this country .In 10 years of the premier division 4 of the 5 league winners went bust and 1 is borderline,all because they buckled to the pressure and chased a CL dream ,bankrupting clubs in the process.

 

The 65% rule (eventually be 50%) which the FAI have implemented is the based loosly on the German models (think Sweden may have something similar) and is the only way forward.Clubs cannot keep spending 80/90% + of their annual turnover on players wages,theres too much money ,our money ,leaving the game and paying for some shit one legged dutch wannabe rappers chicken royale rather than being plowed back into the game.

 

Unfortunatly the FA are either too corrupt or incompetant ,and the PL too power hungry ,for either to plan for the future.Its gonna take a big club crashing for them all to sit up and take note.

[Antynwa]

Heaven....

[bigjohn]

The thing that scares the hell out of me - especially with our current financial situation - is the TV money drying up. If there was a significant reduction then several clubs could fold.

I try to go to games when I visit Germany and I always enjoy it...good atmosphere, good food, you can have a beer :) (Saw Hertha Berlin in the Olympic stadium last time -bloody great - next ambition is to go to Dortmund)

[MichaelThomas]

The Germans have the right idea, for them, for sure. But they also have special rules on wages and turnover which mean, A. They're unlikely to ever be able to get and keep the best players in the world, and B. Bayern dominate everything (they have to have a seriously bad season not to win the league).

[Guest PurpleNose]

Fucking typical.

[OmarVizquel]

I would say that is more of an adverb.

 

Adverbial gerund, maybe. I agree; it's very effective.

[RobbieOR]

Many people in England now are getting easy jet flights over to Dortmund and supporting them because its cheaper to that then it is go to a game in England.

[WaltonRed]

How many?

[Unrighteous]

Die bundesliga = Greatest league on the planet.

[Nunavut Patrick]

Article is appeasement.

 

Only a matter of time before the Germans take over the Polish League, run ramshod over Belgium again and Bayern are playing half their home games in the Stade de France. I expect Serie A will also join the Bundesliga at first as well.

 

We have to make it to Hamburg and walk away with nothing less than:

 

Claudia Schiffer

The Europa trophy thingy

1/2 million crates of Holstein, wheat beer, Becks,

Joachim Lows belt buckle

Hamburger to make cheeseburgers

A case of Blue Nun wine

 

All of the above must fit on the boats at Dunkirk.

[WaltonRed]

They can stand though so that makes it cheaper automatically.

[Gav]

Die bundesliga = Greatest league on the planet.

 

Not now ,but in a few years time I think it will be.Its a marthon ,not a sprint and unfortunatly Spain and England are treating the game as sprints .TV money won't be there indefinatly,and lets face it ,we've all experienced the bigoted view of being a football supporter,it's very refreshing to go to a game and be seen and treated as human

[Guest PurpleNose]

Not now ,but in a few years time I think it will be.Its a marthon ,not a sprint and unfortunatly Spain and England are treating the game as sprints .TV money won't be there indefinatly,and lets face it ,we've all experienced the bigoted view of being a football supporter,it's very refreshing to go to a game and be seen and treated as human

 

Think thats a bit unfair.

 

Real Madrid are. Most of the teams in the bottom half spend fuck all.