Bundesliga in talks with buyout firms about multibillion-euro investment as it seeks to catch up with rivals
Germany’s Bundesliga has revived talks with buyout groups over a multibillion-euro investment, as the need to close the gap to wealthier football leagues forces clubs to review their resistance to the private equity industry.
Over the past three weeks, executives from Deutsche Fussball Liga, which runs the Bundesliga, have held preliminary talks with buyout firms, including Advent, Blackstone, Bridgepoint, CVC and KKR, according to two people familiar with the matter.
One option under discussion is to create an entity that would control the Bundesliga’s media and commercial rights, valuing them at up to €18bn, and then raise as much as €4.5bn by selling a 25 per cent stake to external investors, the people said. Any agreement would then be presented to the clubs, which include Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen, for a vote, likely early next year.
Read more: FT
