The 3rd division has weathered the coronavirus pandemic better than the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga. There is only one 3rd division in Europe with higher spectator numbers. But there are also concerns.

A few days ago, Peter Frymuth, responsible for the 3rd division at the DFB, spoke about the development of Germany’s third-highest league.

Now the DFB has published a report that shows where the 3rd division stands in a Europe-wide comparison. The first important finding is that the German 3rd division has survived the coronavirus pandemic very well.

According to the report, the clubs in the 3rd division can look forward to the highest income 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 and Waldhof Mannheim.

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

In the end, most of the money was spent on personnel costs. On average, a third division club spent over 5 million euros on personnel. The five million euro mark had never been exceeded before.

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

The DFB’s figures: The debt level of the first division clubs in Europe was around 28% higher on the 2022 reporting date than before the pandemic in 2019. At the same time, the clubs’ equity decreased by around 18.5% on average. The clubs in the top two leagues in Germany reported 17.2% higher liabilities and around 18.5% lower equity in 2022 than three years earlier.

The third division was different: the average liabilities per club on the third division clubs’ balance sheets in 2022 were even slightly lower than in 2019 (-0.4%). Equity only decreased by an average of around 3.7% in the aforementioned period. Only clubs with first teams were included in the calculations for the 3rd division.

The most important lesson was to further emphasize economic stability.

Peter Frymuth

Good key figures, which continue with the spectators. In the current round, an average of 8199 spectators came to the stadiums. Across Europe, this puts Germany in 23rd place on average, and if you only take the third leagues in Europe, Germany is even in 2nd place. Only League One, the third division in England, has an even higher average with 10,600 spectators.

Frymuth’s conclusion: “Together with the clubs, I see us on the right path and another step forward. The 3rd division is perceived more strongly than a few years ago – and also as more stable. The most important lesson was to continue to focus on economic stability. “