Bundesliga faces reckoning as English Premier League flexes financial muscle
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Liverpool's Florian Wirtz in action with Newcastle United's Sandro Tonali during their Premier League clash.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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BERLIN – The English Premier League’s record transfer summer has had an acute impact on Germany, where even Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich have felt the impacts of English football’s growing financial muscle.
Other than Liverpool signing Alexander Isak from rivals Newcastle United, the top four most expensive Premier League arrivals this summer – Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Nick Woltemade and Benjamin Sesko – all came from the Bundesliga.
A total of €381.5 million (S$572.3 million) plus bonuses was paid out on that quartet alone, with the two most expensive moving to the same club – Liverpool.
Premier League clubs spent more than £3 billion (S$5.19 billion) this summer, a record for a transfer window.
The shifting sands have led to debate about whether to pursue major structural reforms in Germany, like abolishing the fan-loved 50+1 rule, which restricts outside investment and ensures member control.
Ex-Bayern chief executive Oliver Kahn, the club’s former goalkeeper, slammed German football administrators on Sept 1, saying that clubs and the league were content to play second fiddle. He called for changes in structure – and in attitude.
“For many, this is normal now. For me, it’s a signal. The league is playing too safe and has forgotten how to take risks,” Kahn wrote on his personal LinkedIn account.
“(The question is) whether we want to remain a league that creates talent and loses it – or whether we want to create the conditions for talents to stay here.”
He did not directly call for the abolition of the 50+1 rule, but said that structural restraints meant “bold decisions don’t emerge”.
Under the 50+1 rule, German clubs must be majority owned by club members – mostly fans – thus restricting external investment. There are only two clubs which have an exception to that rule, Bayer-owned Leverkusen and Volkswagen-owned Wolfsburg.
Double winners in 2023-24, Leverkusen lost eight key members of that team this summer, with five moving to the Premier League.
Leverkusen’s sporting director Simon Rolfes told DAZN this season: “When a domino falls in England, it will fall here.... You have almost no choice but to let the player go.”
This summer, Borussia Dortmund, Leverkusen, RB Leipzig and VfB Stuttgart each sold at least one player to the Premier League for a fee of more than €50 million.
Even the mighty Bayern have not escaped the ripple effects. Despite courting Wirtz and Woltemade, both players moved to the Premier League.
Earlier this season, Bayern’s board member for sport Max Eberl said “certain things weren’t possible during the transfer window because we want to be very financially prudent”.
Asked to assess the appeal of the Premier League this transfer window, Bayern coach Vincent Kompany gave a one-word answer: “Money.”
In Germany, the growing financial might of the Premier League presents a real challenge to Bayern’s status as the league’s apex predators.
Winners of 33 German titles, they have built their success on the back of plucking their rivals’ best.
This summer shows competition from the Premier League is making that more difficult. AFP
