FC Bayern is giving away hundreds of thousands of euros: In the upcoming cup game, the record champions and cup winners will give up their share of the audience revenue to help their opponents get back on their feet financially. He celebrates a gesture that is “unique in German football”.
Series champion FC Bayern Munich leaves half of its income to the third division team Viktoria Köln in the first round game in the DFB Cup. This should be at least 200,000 euros. Bayern play on Wednesday (8.46 p.m. / ARD, Sky and in the live ticker on ntv.de) in the Müngersdorfer Stadion in Cologne, the game is sold out with 50,000 spectators. In the DFB Cup, both teams usually receive an equal share of the audience revenue. The DFB transfers 200,000 euros to each club for participation in the first round.
Cologne’s Managing Director Eric Bock said: “After a brief exchange of letters and a few phone calls, President Herbert Hainer informed us that FC Bayern will waive 50 percent of the ticket income to which it is entitled. With a game of this magnitude, this is anything but a matter of course and is unique in German football .” “With this gesture, FC Bayern once again emphasizes its exceptional position”.
“Viktoria Köln can look back on more than 110 years of tradition and is one of the big names in German professional football,” said Bayern President Hainer. “Many clubs are suffering from the consequences of the pandemic and FC Bayern has always been known for supporting clubs in need,” added Hainer.
The size of the friendly Bayern donation is unique, but the idea as such is not even in recent cup history: Last autumn, the later cup winner RB Leipzig decided to make the same gesture before their second round duel with fourth division club SV Babelsberg. In a statement from the Bundesliga club at the time, the proceeds from the game were “fully left to the hosts”.
“Like everyone else, the pandemic has of course hit SV Babelsberg 03 hard economically. In addition, the game against us will lead to additional expenses in game operations. So we didn’t have to think long about whether we wanted to support the club by waiving ticket sales “Explained Florian Scholz, Commercial Director Sport at RB Leipzig. “We are pleased that we can thus contribute a little to relieving the club and at the same time can send a positive signal to amateur sport.” On October 26, 2021, however, only a good 6,000 spectators gathered in the sold-out Karl Liebknecht Stadium to see Leipzig’s unadorned 1-0 victory.
