A stadium beer for 6.50 euros, expensive tickets and fan jerseys, 1.4 billion euros from the sale of TV rights alone: for UEFA, this tournament is primarily a gigantic business, which is what professional football has mutated into anyway. Has football long been part of the media’s business rather than the sports section? A study has just found that all European professional leagues generated a total of 35.5 billion euros in the 2022/23 season – excluding transfer revenues.
Football has managed to establish itself and stage itself as an event that practically everyone can identify with today. Football has succeeded in combining the ideas of classic sport with maximum economization. The basic conditions of sport include the special framework for sporting activities – in this case: a game lasts 90 minutes -, the organizational aspects, i.e. the rules in all their subtleties, and the classic behavior of fair play and respectful interaction with one another. At the European Championships, this ethical value system is demonstrated, among other things, by the protagonists high-fiving each other before the start of each game, walking onto the pitch with children, playing anthems or observing minutes of silence. Everything is very similar to an ancient drama, although it is always written without a script, the ending is always completely open and anyone can take part. A constellation that is the linchpin for commercialization. The connection is now so close that people are paying exorbitant prices for everything related to this European Championship, for example, and during the Corona period were even prepared to watch previous World Cup matches on TV where the result was known. Without this degree of identification, the commercial spiral could never have reached this level.
Making a huge profit from the European Championships, but imposing the immense costs for organisation, security and fan festivals on the host and claiming tax breaks on top of that. What characterises this relationship between the organiser and the host?
Associations such as FIFA and UEFA are fully aware of the exclusive nature of their offer and their special role, which also applies to the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Games. Accordingly, these organizers behave like giant global corporations and see the opportunity to exploit their offer to the maximum and generate the highest possible profits. This is all the more successful the more a company mutates into one of services, entertainment and events. In addition, there are enough autocrats who like to bask in such spheres with their money.
A new “summer fairytale” is already being conjured up. It has long been forgotten that Berlin’s World Cup representative Jürgen Kießling took his own life immediately after the 2006 final. As coordinator of the host cities, he had complained about FIFA’s long list of demands and, as a good official of the Berlin Senate, had only grudgingly complied with the conditions, some of which he personally found unbearable. Kießling put it this way: “These people would prefer that the FIFA flags still fly uniformly on the masts.” Why can’t a democratic country say: Without us! What would have to change so that future hosts are no longer subject to this dictate for better or for worse?
Nothing will change from above. Above all, there is a need for more sensitivity to grassroots democratic processes. There is a need for fans who do not see themselves as extras, but who confidently oppose the power of the associations, who now see football as their personal property. The example of Bayern Munich and the successful fan protest against the advertising partner Qatar has shown what is possible. In my observation, this is the only way to ensure that the biggest sporting events do not erode and become undermined even further.
Why can highly paid professionals wearing the DFB jersey negotiate a success bonus of up to 400,000 euros per player for the European Championship title, while a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Paris is rewarded with 20,000 euros by the Sporthilfe?
These bonuses are completely incomprehensible to me. Because the European Championship is not a club competition in which the professionals play for their employers, but a competition between national teams. Perhaps the German Football Association believes that the players will try harder if bonuses are offered. But there are other motivating factors. This stage is like a red carpet on which every single player can show why they are giving it their all on the field out of national pride, personal honour or the desire for a good image or a new contract. The fact that motivation has to be backed up with so much money is a good example of the level at which the economisation of football has reached.
