Drico
Player Valuation: £70m
I live in Berlin. I love the Bundesliga - the real best league in the world (when we are talking about fan experience). But the only reason the Bundesliga is cheaper than the Premier League is because it does not pay the salaries demanded by the top Premier League players. This is a choice. The only reason German clubs will not pay those salaries or transfer fees is they generally cannot afford to - Bayern excepted. This is also a choice. They cannot afford to pay them because German fans and, more reluctantly, administrators decided to maintain the 50+1 rule which basically ensures most clubs cannot be fully owned by foreign entities. If German football decided to do away with this law, the Premier League's financial dominance would, in theory, quickly erode as Germany is a bigger market, a bigger country, has bigger crowds and and has more of what we would call big clubs. The potential is huge. However, this would probably still founder on the reality that, unlike in the UK, Germans flatly refuse to be ripped off by Sky and satellite TV providers. So the domestic broadcasting revenue will never match England's. Another choice. Those Germans, eh? It's a matter of culture.on your last point, not at all, we are being scammed
the average cost of a bundesliga ticket, including vat and transport costs is 28 euro, or £24
admittedly there is less money in bundesliga, but they also don’t receive anywhere near as much cash as premier league clubs do in england. so they have much lower revenue streams but can still afford to keep prices low. and their top sides are competitive in european competition, with bayern, dortmund, leverkusen and frankfurt all either winning or making european finals since the turn of the decade
we need a ticketing price cap for home matches. and we need large scale protests and walk outs, empty crowds to really hamper the brand, players then saying how bad it is playing in empty stadium and that fans should be listened to etc, otherwise nothing will change for the better
But up to now German football has held back the tide and consoled itself with having a top three league, one mega club, a fantastic fan culture, and a national team that usually competes with the best. The price? Being shut out of the market for most of the world's top players. Is this something the Premier League fan in England is willing to accept? Perhaps, but the evidence suggests there is definitely a market for the status quo. My point, overall, however, is you will not see Mo Salah or Erling Haaland in England if you do a Bundesliga. You'll see Erling or Kevin deBruyne for five minutes before they are spirited away, as Dortmund and Wolfsburg fans did. But you won't see the top players once they start attracting the moneyed clubs.
Of course, I think there is a much better balance to be had for English fans. The German model is definitely my preference - the standard is still very high and the prices are reasonable. But Manchester capitalism is central to the English soul, so it's no surprise it sold itself to the highest bidder. In my experience, German capitalism tends to have a social flavour, whereas in England it is let rip. The footballing cultures reflect this.
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