St. Pauli rescinds request for TV-money redistribution

St. Pauli has rescinded their demand for a redistribution of Bundesliga television revenue, the German football league (DFL) announced in a press conference on Wednesday.

DFL president Reinhard Rauball said he had spoken to representatives from the Hamburg-based club, including club president Andreas Rettig, and helped them come to this decision.

"It was not the correct point in time to make this proposal," Rettig said after the DFL meeting on Wednesday.

Just over a week ago, St. Pauli had demanded for four clubs - Bayer Leverkusen, Wolfsburg, Hoffenheim, and Hannover - to be excluded from the DFL's new marketing deal. Leverkusen, Wolfsburg, and Hoffenheim are currently exceptions to Germany's 50+1 rule that requires clubs to keep club members as majority shareholders. Hannover owner Martin Kind is also poised to take majority control of the club in 2017.

"There is the impression that the league's central marketing hub and its solidarity are in question," said Rettig. "Our intention was never to pull the second division into a distribution battle. Our intention was only to strengthen the 50+1 rule."

DFL chief executive Christian Seifert said the Bundesliga must retain a central marketing deal in new media rights negotiations for the top two divisions. The Bundesliga's current deal runs until 2017 and generates 2.5 billion euros ($2.65 billion) from its four-year TV deal, but the league still trails behind Premier League clubs in England where between the 2016 and 2019 seasons, 6.9 billion euros will be delivered to the top 20 English clubs.

No DFB investigation until February

Meanwhile, an investigation at the German football federation (DFB) into payments to FIFA linked to the 2006 World Cup will likely run into the new year.

Although DFB officials had hoped for a report by the end of the year, although DFB treasurer Reinhard Grindel said this probably would now not come before February. Grindel is a leading candidate to become president of the federation following the resignation of Wolfgang Niersbach on November 9 as a result of the affair.

The DFB has tasked the law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer to investigate payments to FIFA. "I expect the report from Freshfields in February at the earliest," Grindel said after the DFL meeting.

dv/jh (dpa)