YesFor decades, a conflict has been brewing in German football over two strategic objectives that are difficult to reconcile: football must be preserved as a “cultural asset” and at the same time used as a commercial asset. In this debate, which has at times become a cultural war, there is hardly a topic that is discussed more emotionally and to which the defenders of the unrestricted preservation of tradition attribute the success of their mission more fatefully than the 50+1 rule.
This rule, consistently described as “untouchable” by members of the active fan scene, ensures that the respective parent clubs, with at least 51 percent of the voting shares, have the majority of votes in the corporations. in which most football clubs participate. They split their professional teams. With a league investor's project recently failing and alternative ways to raise capital now being sought, debates about the usefulness of the 50+1 rule are likely to re-emerge.