The Covid-19 pandemic means it’s no longer aiming to seal a deal by the end of May
The German Football League (DFL) has announced that it is postponing its invitation to tender for domestic Bundesliga rights for the 2021-22 until 2024-25 seasons.
On Tuesday 24 March, the governing body also decided to extend the suspension to elite football in the country from the end of March until at least 30 April. However, clubs are still keen to complete the campaign by 30 June as otherwise they could be put into financial trouble.
Just last week the organisation had announced that it was planning to go ahead with the tendering process as normal, with chief executive Christian Seifert saying that a number of interested parties had “signalled that they would like to adhere to the process.”
However, it has been a abrupt u-turn from the DFL.
It has delayed the tendering process to give itself more time to deal with the coronavirus’ effects on sport in the country. It had originally been aiming to complete a deal by the end of May. Now an allocation is planned for June onwards.
Football across Europe is currently at a standstill due to the coronavirus pandemic and resulting lockdowns. As a result all aspects of the sport are currently in limbo until a response to the virus is found.
Read part of the DFL’s statement below.
In light of the current situation, the Executive Committee of the DFL has also decided to postpone the planned tender for media rights. Instead of the originally intended date in May, an allocation is planned from this June onwards. The Federal Cartel Office had given the DFL the go-ahead for the submitted marketing concept last Friday. It is the objective of the DFL to focus on meeting the current challenges first.
Currently Sky Deutschland holds the rights to show 266 live Bundesliga games a season, and DAZN, 40. Discovery-owned Eurosport acquired a package of rights in the last tender but sub-licensed them to the latter. Sky also owns the rights to all 306 Bundesliga 2 games, and there are various highlights deals with Sport1, DAZN, and public service broadcaster ARD.