Mainz boss says DFL plan "heads in the right direction"
FSV Mainz 05 board member Dr. Jan Lehmann had mixed reactions on the day the DFL announced its new revenue sharing model.
A clear attempt at a compromise emerges from the new "four pillar approach" the DFL wishes to use for revenue apportionment in the four-coming seasons governed by the new television contract.
The fourteen clubs who put together a positional paper in late October can certainly claim some victories. Likewise, the DFL respected the cabal of larger clubs who argued that incentives their success in the European club competitions needed to be preserved.
As is often the case with compromise, neither side shall declare themselves fully satisfied. Mainz board member Dr. Jan Lehmann, who was among the leaders of the movement, was among the first to publish a statement.
"[the DFL decision] essentially heads in the right direction," Lehmann writes in a letter appearing on his club's website, "In particular, this [plan] will reduce the disparity with respect to media revenues between the top clubs and smaller clubs in the Bundesliga, which was a major concern of the [October] letter jointly signed by the 14 clubs."
Naturally, in the current COVID-ravaged economic landscape, many of the participating clubs had held out hope for more sweeping reform. As DFL President Christian Seifert himself acknowledged in the press conference releasing the plan, thirteen of the clubs in Germany's first and second division remain threatened with insolvency.
The continuation of some form of lockdown in the Bundesrepublik may deprive clubs of revenues for another three to four months. In Seifert's own words, "things are about to get very tight" for all professional footballing bodies.
"We would have liked to see an even stronger signal of solidarity," Lehmann continued, "Further and more sustainable changes in the professional footballing system are necessary."