The German Football League (DFL) has suspended the sales process for Bundesliga broadcasting rights from the 2025-26 season after a complaint from broadcasters DAZN.
The streaming platform sent a letter to DFL managing directors Marc Lenz and Steffen Merkel as well as the clubs on Wednesday and raised serious accusations.
The clubs were informed by the DFL about the suspension, while a spokesperson said: "The DFL rejects the allegations in the clearest possible terms."
The DFL started this week the negotiations for the Bundesliga broadcasting rights for the period between 2025-26 and 2028-29. The negotiations take place every four years.
DAZN reportedly said it felt unfairly treated when bidding for package B, which is the largest package and includes the Saturday matches at 3:30 pm (1300 GMT), the Friday evening game as well as the relegation play-offs
According to the Bild newspaper, DAZN said in the letter that their offer was rejected, even though it submitted "the most financially attractive and convincing offer for the rights package B."
"We were led to believe that our financial offer was significantly higher than any other. We have no other explanation for this behaviour than that the DFL management had already anticipated the result to award package B to its preferred bidder," Bild quoted the letter.
The dispute was triggered by the lack of a bank guarantee, which the DFL can demand from bidders. Bild reported that DAZN said it would not give a bank guarantee, but would issue a letter of responsibility - something they had already done in the past.
But the DFL demanded a bank guarantee from DAZN "in the middle of the process" and "whithin 24 hours, an impossible task," the streaming service said.
The DFL said in a statement to the clubs seen by dpa that DAZN's letter "contains a number of inaccurate statements and misrepresentations of facts."
