By Mark Baber
December 19 – The Deutsche Fussball Liga (DFL) has given the go-ahead for SAP-founder Dietmar Hopp to take a majority stake in TSG 1899 Hoffenheim – the village club he brought from lower league obscurity to Bundesliga glory – with effect from 1 July 2015.
German clubs operate under a ’50+1′ rule whereby a voting majority must always be held by the parent club. However a few exceptions have been made, including for Vfl Wolfsburg (owned by Volkswagen) and Bayer Leverkusen (owned by Bayer) where “a legal entity has uninterruptedly and significantly supported the football of a parent club for more than 20 years.”. In this case the DFL has held the criteria have been met although the decision still has to be confirmed by the German Football Association (DFB) board.
1899 Hoffenheim’s club president, Peter Hofmann, welcomed the decision saying: “Dietmar Hopp fulfils the criteria which are laid out in the rules and regulations of the DFL as regards to the 50+1 rule in an exemplary manner. His involvement has set new benchmarks while achieving something unique.”
Hoffenheim is a village with a population of 3,300 and the team was a fifth division club in 2000. With the backing of Dietmar Hopp, the club raced up the divisions, moving from the Dietmar Hopp Stadion to the new 30,000 seater Rhein-Neckar Arena and topping the Bundesliga as “Herbst Meister” (Autumn-Champions) in the first part of their debut season in the Bundesliga in 2008-09.
Although 1899 Hoffenheim is widely criticised by fans of other teams as a ‘sugar daddy’ club with a lack of tradition and proper fan base, the club has, through its rapid rise to success, established its own history, culture and identity.
Germany’s greatest band Rammstein’s ‘Engel’ is played before each game and, unsurprisingly, the fans regularly chant “Dietmar Hopp”.
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