German football fans fall silent at games to protest Bundesliga investment deal
Soccer fan groups across Ger‐ many plan to fall silent at games this weekend to protest the league's plan to sell a stake in TV and marketing income to an out‐ side investor.
Fan clubs and groups known as "ultras" from many of Germany's largest clubs, including fans of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, said Friday they will fall silent for the first 12 minutes of their teams' upcoming games in a reference to the influence of fans as the proverbial 12th player of a soccer team.
"We are not prepared to stand idly by as German soccer gets sold out," the groups said in a joint statement.
Fans have been protesting with banners at Bundesliga games for months and fear an investor could pressure the league to change how the competition is run and focus more on TV view‐ ers than the fans in the stadiums.
The fan groups say their "biggest weapon" is the way that the Bundesliga's marketing fo‐ cuses heavily on Germany's packed stadiums and passionate crowds.
Past protests played a key role in the league abolishing unpop‐ ular Monday evening kickoffs in what was widely seen as a vic‐ tory over broadcasters.
The protests come after clubs in the top two German men's soccer division voted narrowly to proceed Monday with negoti‐ ations to allow an investment firm to acquire a percentage of future TV and marketing income in exchange for an up‐front pay‐ ment. The league says the share would be a maximum of 8% over 20 years and that there are "sev‐ eral interested parties."
League officials say an in‐ vestor's influence would be re‐ stricted to help with marketing, and that the extra income would allow the Bundesliga to modern‐ ize in a changing media market increasingly focused on stream‐ ing services.