Now is the time for RB Leipzig to embrace 50+1

Fireworks often kick-start the new season in German football. However, unlike most years, when they typically take place inside a stadium in Berlin, Munich or Dortmund to celebrate the German Super Cup, this year’s took place outside a white administrative building on the leafy avenues of Bonn’s Südstadt. There, the Bundeskartellamt (German Federal Cartel Office), made perhaps the most consequential decision in recent German football history.

Following a review process that began almost eight years ago, a decision was finally made: the regulatory agency has no fundamental objection to the 50+1 rule, even if it does restrict economic competition for outside investment in professional football in Germany. Ultimately, the decision concluded that the importance of club identity and member participation is more important than antitrust prohibitions.

However, the ruling didn’t stop there. Along with lending its support to the 50+1 rule, the agency then doubled down by pointing out that if German football intends to keep its defining rule, it must apply it consistently. In stating that the DFL must apply 50+1 “without any objectively unjustified differences”, the agency pointed out that the clubs that don’t adhere to it are effectively given an unfair advantage.

For anyone who wasn’t aware of the clubs the agency was referring to, it soon became abundantly clear when the club statements started pouring in. Bayer Leverkusen claimed that they saw “some promising starting points” for a “fair, practical and, if possible, long-term solution for all of German professional football.” RB Leipzig stated that the “league and clubs are in constant and positive communication, and we are proceeding calmly and constructively, as always.” However, Wolfsburg and Volkswagen were far stronger in their reaction, pointing out that the decision was not legally binding and that they “reserve the right to take all appropriate further steps.”