The big money circling around the English Premier League could be compromising the youth development of the English national team, according to German Football League (DFL) CEO Christian Seifert, who also said that top German league sides like Bayern Munich are playing too much football.
Seifert, who was speaking in London at the Leaders Sport Business Summit, championed Germany’s youth club system, which has helped Germany perform well in int'l tournaments, culminating in Germany winning the World Cup in Brazil this year.
Seifert hinted that England could learn lessons from its strategy, suggesting that the millions of pounds poured into the Premier League by BT and Sky could be to the detriment of the national team.
Seifert: "Sometimes you can have too much money. The English league has so much money compared to us. We have right now €2.4 billion and are the No. 2. But if you (Premier League) have so much money compared to us and you can afford nearly every player around the world, how motivated are you to put your cards on the young players? It’s not an easy situation."
German club sides have been successful in European competitions in recent years, led by Bayern Munich.
NO NEED FOR EXPANSION: Unlike other European leagues which boast 20 teams, top flight German football has just 18 sides.
Seifert said it would make no sense for the German league to expand to 20 sides but instead hinted that the future could rest with as few as 16 teams.
Seifert: "It would make no sense for sport reasons. If you look at the amount of games that top players have to play in one season, I would say it’s already over-engineered." He also addressed some German fans' distress over selling naming rights of stadiums to commercial partners, saying, "If you want to have one of the strongest leagues in Europe then you need to make money."
John Reynolds is a writer in London.
