Dark clouds before the start of the league
Legal dispute robs Bundesliga clubs of planning security
The ongoing dispute between DFL and DAZN is keeping the Bundesliga busy before the start of the season. The trouble has no financial consequences for the new season – but for the following seasons. In the season that begins on Friday, the league will distribute almost 1.5 billion euros to the clubs.
Despite missing out on the championship, FC Bayern Munich remains number one in the distribution of TV money. The third-place team from the previous season can plan for more than 100 million euros in the new season. How much money the German Football League (DFL) can distribute from 2025/26 is completely unclear. The record champions share this problem with all other clubs in the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga. The ongoing dispute between the DFL and the internet sports broadcaster DAZN has long-term effects.
Even before the first first division kicks off this Friday in Mönchengladbach, the professional clubs know relatively precisely how much money they will receive in the coming months from the proceeds of national and international TV marketing. This season, the DFL is distributing around 1.212 billion euros to the 36 professional clubs from national revenue alone. In addition, there are around 214 million euros from foreign marketing. Bayern will receive the largest share of the payouts with just under 101 million euros. Borussia Dortmund and champions Bayer Leverkusen follow roughly on a par with each other with around 90 million euros. Second-placed VfB Stuttgart, on the other hand, have to make do with around 56 million euros and eleventh place in the TV money ranking, as calculated by the portal “fernsehgelder.de”. This is considered reputable and accurate, as they say in the league.
The key to the distribution is quite complicated, but not secret. The distribution of the TV money is based primarily on a base amount of around 26 million euros for each first division team and 7.4 million euros for each second division team. This equal distribution share is 50 percent. This means that the Bundesliga promoted teams FC St. Pauli (33.6 million) and Holstein Kiel (31.5 million) also receive decent income. What the newcomers, like VfB Stuttgart, lack to earn more TV money are better placings in previous years, which make up 43 percent of the performance share. In contrast, the two pillars of young talent (4%) and interest (3%) have a small share in the distribution key.
TV rights from the 2025/2026 season not yet awarded
The clubs have already received data from the DFL for short-term planning. How much money the league will earn in the coming seasons and how it will be distributed is, however, completely unclear. The rights auction, which was canceled four months ago as a result of the legal dispute between the DFL and DAZN over the awarding of the largest TV package for the 2025/26 to 2028/29 seasons, has made further planning for the clubs significantly more difficult.
In the run-up to the tender, DFL managing director Steffen Merkel said of the importance of the rights auction, saying that it was “so important because the results of this tender are of course so far-reaching”. The income “provides the economic framework for almost the next decade”. The TV money for the next seasons plays a key role, not only but especially when it comes to signing new players and concluding multi-year contracts. After all, the income from TV marketing accounts for “on average 30 percent of the clubs' turnover, in individual cases almost 50 percent”, explained Merkel.
Auction in the fourth quarter of 2024 at the earliest
Clubs and the league – as well as all TV providers – are currently waiting for the verdict of the German Institution for Arbitration (DIS), which is negotiating the DFL/DAZN dispute. According to information from the German Press Agency, this is expected at the end of September. The reasons will then only be given in December. It is therefore unclear when the interrupted auction of the TV rights will continue. Ideally, it will start again immediately after the verdict. However, if DAZN waits for the reasons to decide on further legal steps, it could start much later. The internet sports broadcaster and the DFL do not currently want to comment on the issue.
Managing Director Merkel is trying to demonstrate composure and recently said: “The DFL is already thinking about the next corner and the corner after that. We are in coordination with the Federal Cartel Office so that we don't have any problems with licensing.” On the subject of TV money and the continuation of the auction, however, the DFL managing director was reserved. But what Merkel said suggests lively discussions and probably further delays: “We want to address the issue of distribution after the national tender has been concluded.”
