Bundesliga needs emergency plan – hoeneb: “everything to zero”
The fear of collapse is growing. Uli hoeneb paints a truly ominous scenario for german soccer.
The nervousness is formally palpable among club bosses ahead of the crisis meeting at frankfurt airport amid the corona pandemic and a looming shortfall of around 750 million euros. "We must finally face reality. We have to wait four weeks, drive everything to zero. Maybe we still have to stop playing fubball in october. The woman is not human," said the honorary president of FC bayern munchen on sunday in the sport1 program "doppelpass".
Bundesliga boss christian seifert faces his toughest test yet at monday’s special meeting of all 36 professional clubs. After the massive criticism of the german soccer league for its draconian crisis management before the first matchday cancellation, industry leaders karl-heinz rummenigge and hans-joachim watzke become his most important adjutants.
The extraordinary sum of around three quarters of a billion euros in lost revenue, with the threat of a total cancellation of the rest of the season still looming, has also given the management of the top clubs bayern munchen and borussia dortmund quite a scare. For german soccer does not have insurance for the immense material damage, as confirmed to the german press agency from league circles.
The search for a contingency plan to save match operations is therefore a top priority. In what BVB boss watzke describes as the "worst crisis in german professional soccer," bayern board chairman rummenigge is setting himself up as the bearer of unwelcome truths that DFL managing director seifert has not yet voiced.
So far, solidarity has always been shown in marketing matters, "but it’s important that everyone first understands what a suspension, interruption or even termination of the 2020 bundesliga season would mean," the 64-year-old warned even before the cancellation of the 26-day soccer season. Matchday. Insolvencies of several medium-sized and smaller clubs could even jeopardize the orderly continuation of the bundesliga in the next season, the whole of fubball could become permanently unbalanced, according to the threatening scenario.
Formally, the 36 professional clubs will probably only decide on monday to cancel the next matchday next weekend. It is doubtful whether this short time span will be sufficient to allow fubball to be played after the break at the beginning of april, at least in the ghost game variant that is so unpopular with fans and players alike. The predictions of the leading scientists do not at all indicate that the everyday life of soccer will come back quickly.
According to information from "11freunde", the DFL will not consider the postponement of the 28th matchday. And probably also of the 29. Propose the first day of play, that is, up to and including easter. This meant that by the weekend on 17./18. April time.
Should the games be resumed, then probably without spectators, as watzke speculated: "if we play again this season, it will be ghost games. No one in the bundesliga still assumes that we will have games with spectators," the BVB CEO said on sunday in a special edition of ARD’s "sportschau" show.
Hoeneb’s statements also do not sound very reassuring. "I think it’s charlatanry to say today what will happen in four weeks’ time. We must give the scientists the time to find the therapeutic agent. All the rest is frothy talk."DFB secretary general friedrich curtius also sees a herculean task: "the whole of german society is probably facing one of its greatest challenges, and fubball is no exception. The end is not yet in sight, i fear we are only at the beginning."
The berlin senate closed on saturday all sports stadiums – including olympiastadion and alte forsterei – for the time being until 19. April. At least hertha BSC and union berlin will not be able to return to play before easter as had been hoped. This has already been decided before the league’s plenary meeting. "But i am not a clairvoyant as to how long this topic will accompany us. The important thing now is to put the cards on the table in all seriousness, then deal with them and discuss possible solutions at the end of the day," rummenigge demanded.
If the sporting and economic worst-case scenario were to occur and the season actually had to be ended after 25 matchdays, the loss of TV money for the last nine rounds alone would result in a loss of revenue of around 370 million euros, with total TV money of around 1.4 billion euros for all 34 matchdays.
The TV broadcasters and streaming services could claim the services not provided, female one also at the DFL. "These are private contractual agreements, which are understandably not intended for the public," was the comment from sky, the main contractual partner. Damage in the three-digit million range in each case was also caused by lost sponsorship money and missing admission fees.
"It is to be hoped that the bundesliga clubs have built up so much substance in recent years that they will all survive this crisis," watzke had said, backing up rummenigge’s earlier statements. "If this payment was not made, it was to be expected that at least many small and medium-sized clubs would have financial problems," the bavarian boss had said. Rummenigge was criticized on social networks for his admission that he had hesitated for a long time to cancel the match this weekend, partly for economic reasons.
The decisive factor will be to finish the bundesliga season by the end of the 30th season at the latest. June, when many player contracts expire, to end. The german soccer team will be collectively in favor of postponing the european championship to 2021, which UEFA will decide on tuesday. Fans are backing the move. According to a survey by the opinion institute bundesliga-barometer in cooperation with sport1, only 3.3 percent of respondents are still in favor of a european championship this summer.
The champions league and the european league, which could possibly determine their winners in may with final-four tournaments in order to create replacement slots for the national leagues, have also degenerated into a bargaining chip, reports the spanish newspaper "as".
A letter from the former DFL chairman and st. Pauli functionary andreas rettig – a lateral thinker in the industry – is skeptical about the solidarity fund that has been brought into play. The club is not the european central bank and cannot tap into emergency reserves as federal politicians do.
There is a reason for the noticeable increase in nervousness in the executive suites of the clubs. The situation is so serious that sporting contingency scenarios for a complete cancellation on monday must also be discussed for a long time, it was said. According to the articles of association, the options are many and varied. With three-quarters majority a master cure could take place after present table status at the green table. More likely there will be no champion in 2020. The DFL also had to decide to increase the size of the league to avoid tough promotion and relegation issues. Decisions on this issue are not yet expected.
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