The 3rd division has weathered the corona pandemic better than the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga. Across Europe, there is only one 3rd division with a higher spectator appeal. But there are also concerns.

A few days ago, Peter Frymuth, the DFB official responsible for the 3rd division, spoke about the development of the third-highest German division.

Now the DFB has published a report that shows how the 3rd division compares to others in Europe. The first important finding is that the German 3rd division has weathered the coronavirus pandemic very well.

Accordingly, the clubs in the 3rd division can look forward to the highest revenues in the 15-year history. This is also due to the fact that the stadiums are full due to the many traditional clubs such as Dynamo Dresden, Rot-Weiss Essen, MSV Duisburg or Waldhof Mannheim.

The DFB announced the following figures: the total revenue of the third division clubs increased by a whopping 25 percent to 234.68 million euros in the last season. This amounted to an average of 13.04 million per club, breaking the 13-million mark for the first time.

The biggest expense is staff costs. On average, a third division club spent over €5 million on staff. The €5 million mark had never been exceeded before.

Not so good: in total, only eight clubs have positive equity, while ten clubs cannot say the same. Nevertheless, the 3rd division has coped better with the coronavirus pandemic than the clubs in the 1stand 2nd divisions of the Bundesliga.

The figures from the DFB: The debt level of the first division clubs in Europe in 2022 was around 28 percent higher than before the pandemic in 2019. At the same time, the equity of the clubs decreased by around 18.5 percent on average. In 2022, the clubs in the first and second divisions in Germany had 17.2 percent higher liabilities and equity that was also around 18.5 percent lower than three years earlier.

The situation in the third division was different: in 2022, the average liabilities per club in the balance sheets of the third-division clubs were actually slightly lower than in 2019 (-0.4 per cent). Equity decreased by only around 3.7 per cent on average over the same period. Only the clubs with first teams were included in the calculations for the third division.

The most important lesson was to continue to focus on economic stability.

Peter Frymuth

Good key figures that continue with the spectators. In the current round, an average of 8,199 spectators came to the stadiums. Across Europe, this puts us in 23rd place on average; if you only take the third leagues in Europe, Germany is even in second place. Only the League One, third division in England, has an even higher average of 10,600 spectators.

Frymuth’s conclusion: “I think we and the clubs are on the right track and have taken another step forward. The 3rd division is more visible than it was a few years ago – and also more stable. The most important lesson was to continue to focus on economic stability.”