Football – Bundesliga: Fascination with many contradictions

The fascination for the Bundesliga can be proven in different ways. First of all, obviously with numbers: Last season, the clubs in the highest class sold almost twelve million stadium tickets, and professional football implemented a total of 5.87 billion euros during this time. It is quite possible that the new season that begins this weekend will produce an increase.

The managers of the German Football League (DFL) like to mention some other numbers. Accordingly, top football should support almost 62,000 jobs directly or indirectly. And the clubs would pay tax and social security contributions of 1.7 billion euros. The Bundesliga as an economic engine, that should be the message. What is less highlighted in the marketing brochures are the million dollars for players or the high premiums for their consultants – while a number of club workers and youth coaches receive low wages. There is a critical minority in almost every club environment that indicates this gap. But the large majority of the public does not want to be badly talked about. Because Bundesliga means weekend, leisure – and distraction from everyday life.

Culture of nostalgia

Because beautiful memories also belong, a culture of nostalgia has developed. One example is the ZDF documentary “FC Hollywood” about the folly FC Bayern from the 1990s. It is a collage of spectacular game scenes and moody interviews. Football as a daily soap, and many spectators – including the author of this text – felt reminded of their own youth. To a youth with stickers and autograph cards, at World Championships without hosts such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

The game, the league and its traditions attract viewers and keep the ratings at a high level. Articles about the local professional club often achieve higher clicks than observations from the town hall. All of this supports the story of the DFL and DFB, according to which football is the “last true campfire” in a fragmented society. But the popularity and growth also support a development that traditionalists from Berlin, Hamburg or Stuttgart do not like to see. The big clubs want to open up new markets since the beginning of the millennium. FC Bayern or Borussia Dortmund regularly travel to East Asia or the USA. There are sometimes sponsorship representatives who hope for lucrative contracts in China.

Economy and geopolitics

In addition to the known economic dimension, there is also a geopolitical one. The Russian energy company Gazprom joined FC Schalke 04 in 2007. As a state group, he was not dependent on advertising in Western Europe, but in the supposedly apolitical atmosphere of football, in terms of honor and in VIP lodges, Gazprom representatives were also able to establish contacts with German politicians. A step to get controversial pipeline projects like Nord Stream 2. After the beginning of the Russian attack war against Ukraine in 2022, Schalke ended the partnership with Gazprom.

Or Qatar. For a future after the oil, the monarchy on the Persian Gulf is dependent on investors, skilled workers and tourists. Qatar has less than three million inhabitants and is clearly inferior to his large neighbor Saudi Arabia. The country is investing in soft power, i.e. in science, technology and above all sport. The partnership of the state-close airline Qatar Airways with Bayern, which lasted from 2018 to 2023, was a puzzle part for the World Cup host of 2022. The record champion, who likes to present players for celebrations in lederhosen and with wheat beer glasses, supported a regime that does not tolerate free elections, no parties, no unions. Emirates is the new airline partner of FC Bayern. The airline comes from the United Arab Emirates, which in the ranking of the press freedom of reporters without limits.

There are many contradictions behind the quick fascination of Bundesliga. On the one hand, clubs support initiatives for disadvantaged children, on the other hand, they make themselves dependent on sporting goods manufacturers who exploit seamstresses in low -wage countries. On the one hand, clubs have solar systems installed on their stadium roofs, on the other hand, they use environmentally harmful tanning systems so that their lawn grows in winter. The contrast in health is even clearer. The Bundesliga markets itself as a industry for sports, sustainability and a healthy lifestyle. However, most clubs can be sponsored by betting providers, confectionery manufacturers and breweries. Some fan groups don’t want to accept that. In the area of ​​FC St. Pauli, the “white-brown coffee drinkers” have been positioning themselves for almost thirty years against the high availability of alcohol in the stadiums. It is a model that is also taken up in other cities: by “Schalke Null-Bier” in Gelsenkirchen or “sober, more of the game” at Union Berlin.

A branched civil society has developed around the Bundesliga. There is “Empty Stands” (empty ranks), a group of fans who have suffered from ME/CFS since their covid disease. You want to attract attention to this chronic exhaustion syndrome. Another example: “Sportpride”, a network queer supporter that is strong for diversity. To date, no active Bundesliga player lives openly gay.

Most of these projects were founded outside the club structures, often by passionate and politically thinking fans. The clubs praise such commitment on social media with pathos, but it is rare for financial support. There is, for example, the “learning location stadium”, an initiative that uses football as a medium for extra -curricular education. Much of the funding comes from the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, i.e. from tax funds.

The heavy Bundesliga outsourced its social conscience in 2008 to a foundation. The budget and the workforce of this DFL Foundation have grown over the years, with a large portfolio of funded projects at the Bundesliga locations. And yet an industry that is implementing almost six billion euros a year has to put up with the question: Is that enough? If professional football would be serious with its social messages, then he would make the social commitment to a club as a condition in order to be eligible to play in the Bundesliga. Then he would flow two or three percent of total sales into projects, health promotion or climate protection. Then he would bonify advanced ideas and sanction hypocritical initiatives.

Controversial sponsors

For a long time, the Bundesliga had a charitable approach with benefit games or fundraisers. This is important. But in a contemporary social policy, it is not about how companies donate part of their profits for charitable purposes. It’s about how you generate these profits. On this point, too, it is mainly the media and critical fans who indicate controversial sponsors.

The headlines of the summer break mainly affected players and coaches: the change from Florian Wirtz from Leverkusen to Liverpool, the growing interest in the Stuttgart striker Nick Woltemade, the debut of Sandro Wagner as a coach in Augsburg, rumors about transfers and disputes, often with big discussions on social media. The Bundesliga remains an entertainment industry that moves millions of people. With its media range, FC Bayern looks like a global company. But with his around 1000 employees, he is strictly speaking as a medium -sized company, many of the employees are busy advertising and expansion, especially for the markets in Asia and America. The annual turnover was last 952 million euros.

One may imagine that FC Bayern would set up a department for social policy, with a budget of ten million euros and 30 employees, with social workers, cultural workers, educators. Such an offensive would probably not even notice the general public. But that would not be so important either, because the fascination of the Bundesliga would still have a much greater benefit for the common good, far beyond the emotions on the match day.