There is currently discussion about investors entering the Bundesliga soccer league. VfL Bochum’s management spokesman Ilja Kaenzig is a proponent.

Ilja Kaenzig, management spokesman at VfL Bochum, has spoken out in favor of investors in the Bundesliga soccer league. The latter must “grow in order to be able to provide the clubs with sufficient money,” Kaenzig told Sport Bild: “Abroad, club owners finance new training centers, academies and attractive players. That has to be compensated for here.”

The debate about a league investor is “not about international titles, but about quality assurance in the Bundesliga,” Kaenzig explained: “We should succeed in keeping the greatest talents and best players in the league a tad longer.” If we don’t succeed, “the best people off the pitch will soon be poached as well.” The Dutch and Portuguese leagues have become “export leagues,” Kaenzig said, “That shouldn’t apply to the Bundesliga.”

In addition, he said, there is also a need to expand in the areas of digitalization and foreign marketing. “These will be snatched away by other sports such as the NFL, for example, if nothing happens here,” Kaenzig said. Looking at the amount of time “someone could spend on sports, hobbies and entertainment in the future,” the National Football League (NFL) is among the “biggest competitors,” the 49-year-old explained. According to Kaenzig, a league investor would help “us position ourselves better.”

Bochum could achieve its goals “even without a league investor and club investor,” Kaenzig stressed, but this would be “associated with more pain, because in eleven years in the 2nd division, VfL has caught up with clubs like Mainz or Augsburg in terms of finances and infrastructure.”

What is important in the investor discussion is “that the argument is fact-based,” Kaenzig said: “Nobody is buying the league. It’s about proportional rights for a fixed period of time. “