The summer transfer season closed yesterday, and money exchanged hands between clubs and agents. Based on the trends so far, the English premier league seem to dominate the transfers with lots of money to buy players. The value of players have risen so fast that many clubs in the Bundesliga are still playing catch up.
The newly found purchasing power of the premier league is based on the TV marketing deal worth over 10 Billion Euros from 2016 for three years.It is three times the amount of the Bundesliga. Stoke city will earn more in TV rights than FC Bayern Munich.
The notable transfers was the move from Wolfsburg to Manchester city by Kevin De Bruyne for 75 million euros, Abdul Rahman Baba from FC Augsburg to Chelsea for 25 million euros, or Heung Min Son from Bayer Leverkusen to Tottenham for 30 million euros.
Interestingly, Kevin De Bruyne’s move from Wolfsburg, is the highest transfer fee in the history of the Bundesliga. The former record was held by Firminho who moved from Hoffenheim to Liverpool some time ago.
Given the huge money at stake, can the Bundesliga compete against the English premier league ? Is the premier league,the new Mecca for football players ?
To answer the pertinent questions, one should look at the structure of the Bundesliga model compared to the EPL.In the Bundesliga, there are no money bags or Sheiks buying clubs because of the 50+1 rule,which makes it almost impossible for an outsider to have majority stakes in a club.
Along the line, there have been exception in the 50+1 rule on three occasions in the Bundesliga.They are Bayer Leverkusen is owned by Bayer, Volkswagen owns Wolfsburg, and Dietmar Hopp owns Hoffenheim.
Despite the dominance of Sky in Germany as a pay TV station, the number of subscribers is minute in comparison to the UK.Football in Germany, is still a volkssport that has not lost it’s roots.
Felix Magath thinks the 50+1 rule is outdated.He claims the entry of investors will not ruin the Bundesliga.He wrote in his column for Kölner express and Hamburger Morgenpost:”even when the truth hurts, our elite league can not keep up with England.”
The big clubs in the Bundesliga watch as their talents are scuttled away to the EPL.To stem the tide, there is already a quarrel between the Deutsche Fussball liga (DFL) and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge over the TV marketing in the Bundesliga.Rummenigge suggested marketing the TV rights individually as against the present norm of central marketing.He is of the opinion that FC Bayern will get more money.However, DFL boss,Klaus Filbry is against it.
If the Bundesliga clubs can intensify their scouting abilities and sell to EPL clubs for a high amount later, it is a win-win situation for everybody.
