What is the Bundesliga's 50+1 ownership rule?
Bundesliga fans benefit from a greater say in how their club is run thanks to the 50+1 rule.
The 50+1 ownership rule allows football fans to hold a controlling interest in German Bundesliga clubs.
This means members are able to hold 50%, plus one more vote, of voting rights, which protects clubs from single investors under current antitrust laws.
Most clubs in the Bundesliga are overseen by parent companies, while their teams are operated by commercial entities which have the primary goal of making a profit through football.
The parent companies still retain controlling votes over the operation.
“What you can do as a club is still sell stakes in those entities,” German football writer Constantin Eckner tells BBC Sport.
“Hertha Berlin sold 78% of shares in their commercial entity to an outside investor. However, the outside investor can’t have the controlling votes.
“So you can sell all of your shares to someone from the outside; they pay a lot of money, and then of course, they get something in return if [the club] are successful and make a profit, but the parent club still have to have 50% plus one in terms of the controlling votes.”
The benefit for fans is that it allows them a greater say in how clubs are run compared to those in England, Spain and France. It also means investors have less control.
Eckner says Bundesliga clubs “aren’t as attractive” to investors because most outside investors “want to buy shares in a football team and run the football or have a significant say in how the football club is run”.
“They don’t, on paper at least, have any say on how the club is run, who’s the coach or who’s the big-money signing this summer,” he explains.
Historically, German teams were traditionally not-for-profit organisations run by members’ associations, and private ownership was introduced in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.
The rule has helped to manage debts, wage structures and ticket prices.
Ticket prices in Germany are low compared to other major top flights in Europe, with the Bundesliga official website stating that the average price of a matchday ticket last season was £26.26 (€30.77).
Eckner says that the 50+1 rule is “significant” to the identity of the Bundesliga and German football.
He also believes that it is a “selling point” for the league.
“It helps fans and the members of these clubs feel much more heard compared to other countries where they feel as if they are just ticket buyers,” he says.
“Memberships in Germany can apply more pressure on the boards and decision-makers, so that’s why I think it’s a good thing that [the rule] is staying in place as it has been for decades now.”
The Federal Cartel Office, or Bundeskartellamt, is an agency that oversees the obedience of competition laws in Germany.
It confirmed in a report the 50+1 rule complies with German competition and European Union competition laws.
However, it also highlighted some issues around clubs that are currently operating under exception.
Current rules state that investors who are the club’s single biggest financial contributors for over 20 consecutive years can apply for an exemption from the rule.
Bayer Leverkusen, who won their first league title in 2023-24 under now-Chelsea boss Xabi Alonso, have a long-term sponsorship with chemical conglomerate Bayer - but they are an exception to the 50+1 rule because they meet the requirements of an investor substantially supporting a club for at least 20 years.
VfL Wolfsburg were founded and are still owned by the members and employees of Volkswagen, so they also meet the historical grounds exception.
RB Leipzig are Red Bull-owned, and are also an exception, but are “a bit of a different concern” compared to the other clubs mentioned, according to Eckner.
“Leipzig is, on paper, a non-profit club. It’s a younger club, formerly a small club in the suburbs, and right now they restrict membership in a sense,” says Eckner.
“Leipzig have 1100 members, but only a fraction of those members possess voting rights, so they are restricting membership.
“According to the laws for non-profit clubs in Germany, which could also apply to social clubs, for example, you should have open access to membership.
“Restriction of membership can only be due to certain circumstances. Leipzig are an exception right now, because the Bundesliga accepts the practices of the club, but there is concern that they don’t have open membership.”
In Eckner’s view, this “needs to be changed”.
“But it’s also tough on the Bundesliga,” he says, “because the three clubs I just mentioned, especially Leipzig and Leverkusen, are quite powerful and might challenge any decision made by the Bundesliga in court.”
The potential risk of football clubs losing their identity because of multi-club ownership will not be unfamiliar to some Strasbourg fans in France’s Ligue 1, who protested against parent club Chelsea last year.
The 50+1 rule in Germany prevents such a situation by allowing fans a decisive say in the running of their club.
It can be summed up by the word ‘Vereinsdemokratie’, which translates to ‘club democracy’.
It’s a “powerful tool” to shape “how a club is run”, rather than being able to make operative decisions like buying or selling a player, according to sports economist and co-chair of the advisory board of VfB Stuttgart, Prof Andre Buhler, of Nurtingen-Geislingen University.
“VfB Stuttgart once changed the club crest in order to make it more marketable. At the general meeting 2013, 79.9% of the members present voted in favour of returning to the traditional club crest bearing the founding year of 1893,” Prof Buhler tells BBC Sport.
“Furthermore, a change to the club statutes was passed with 92.1% of the vote, protecting the crest so that in the future only the members may decide on any changes.
“That’s club democracy, whereas in investor-led clubs fans have only little if any means to change the club’s decisions.”
Some are concerned that the rule is slowing the growth of German domestic football, and that financial investment is needed to catch up with other major leagues.
The last German team to reach the Champions League final were Borussia Dortmund, who lost to Real Madrid in the 2023-24 season. Before that, Bayern Munich beat Paris St-Germain in the 2020 final.
Last season, Freiburg and Eintracht Frankfurt competed in the Europa League, with the latter losing in the final, but they won the competition in 2022 by beating Rangers.
The German national team were also knocked out of the 2026 World Cup early, losing on penalties in the round of 32 to Paraguay in a game where they had been favourites.
“The rule is preventing very rich investors from actually buying stakes in clubs,” says Eckner.
“They could do it of course, and there has been incidents when there has been investment in sports stakes of clubs.
“It’s possible according to the rule, but it’s less attractive, and why investors would rather go to the Premier League, the Championship or even La Liga to buy clubs there. They usually buy clubs outright by controlling stakes. You can’t buy a controlling stake in a Bundesliga club.”
Bundeskartellamt president Andreas Mundt said in a statement: “The 50+1 rule can continue to be justified on the grounds of preserving the club-based character of the sport and ensuring member participation.
“However, this is contingent upon the rule being applied consistently and without unjustified distinctions.”
The German Football League [DFL] requested the Bundeskartellamt proceedings to legally support the rule against any future antitrust law challenges.
“We are not conducting proceedings to prohibit the 50+1 rule, nor are we initiating any such proceedings. Rather, the DFL approached us with a request for a sound assessment of this complex issue regarding sports antitrust law,” Mundt said.
“Our evaluation outlines the antitrust framework within which, in our view, the 50+1 rule can be applied with the greatest possible legal certainty.”
The DFL reinforced this, stating the 50+1 rule is an “essential component” of German football.
Lennart Sauerwald, a member of a Stuttgart supporter group, also agrees, telling BBC Sport: “I know fans don’t get to decide if their favourite attacker will get sold, or what to do with the money, [but] I think, especially in Germany, you have seen it with the protests against the selling out of the league to investors.
“Fans stopped games. They threw stuff on the pitch, tennis balls. Little cars driving around on the pitch. I think fans are the conscience of football.”
Lennart also runs his own blog, Rund um den Brustring, which he started 10 years ago, and has his own podcast about the club.
“[Fans] are like the little Jiminy Cricket on the shoulder saying no,” he said.
Prof Buhler takes a similar view, saying: “Football without fans is a dead sport. Therefore, they should have a say when it comes to their club.”
