'Most of the German clubs are guided and ruled by the members of the club,' Peter told Goal. Unsere Kurve board member Jost Peter believes that fan interests must be protected at all costs and that keeping 50+1 in German football is the best way to protect its teams from the commercialisation that has affected other countries. Indeed, Unsere Kurve is a union of supporter groups from clubs across Germany and one of their main priorities is upholding the clause. Protecting the 50+1 rule is of the utmost importance to German football fans.

However, there are a few exceptions to the rule, such as teams founded before 1998 which were founded by the staff from certain companies, such as Wolfsburg (Volkswagen) and Bayer Leverkusen (Bayer AG), while RB Leipzig have circumvented the law by having a very small number of active members, all of whom are Red Bull employees. Therefore, it means that a club's members – the fans – will always retain a majority ownership stake. In 1998, German football introduced the 50+1 rule to ensure that clubs remained in the control of their fans, thus preventing corporations or wealthy individuals from taking over teams and treating them like profitable enterprises.Įssentially, it is a shorthand term for a clause in the regulations of the German Football League (DFL) which states that clubs will not be allowed to participate in the Bundesliga if commercial investors hold more than a 49 per cent stake. How the 50+1 rule affects German football

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