Streaming service DAZN made new accusations against the German Football League (DFL) amid their dispute over delayed payments and the negotiations for the Bundesliga broadcasting rights for 2025-2029.
"The credibility of DAZN as a trustworthy business partner has been massively discredited by the behaviour and statements of the DFL management over the past two weeks," DAZN boss Shay Segev said on Sunday in a letter to the 36 DFL clubs, which was available to dpa.
The DFL statements give "the impression that DAZN has deliberately caused a massive default in payment to the 36 Bundesliga and second division clubs. We hereby state: This is false and we must vehemently contradict this slander," the letter read.
The DFL told the clubs on Friday that they are to receive less money than planned from the media rights income.
"The instalment for June 2024 will be reduced from the original €127 million ($135.8 million) to €47 million," the DFL said.
The reason for that is the fact that €80 million from the current broadcasting rights deal was not received on the contractual due dates, the DFL said.
According to the Bild newspaper, DAZN is €50 million in arrears with its payments obligations. It's unclear which other right holders are also in debt.
The streaming service are also in a dispute with the DFL over the 2025-2029 Bundesliga broadcasting rights. DAZN currently holds the rights for the Friday and Sunday games in the Bundesliga. But for the 2025-2029 period, it would like to take a bigger package in a tender process that started this month.
The auction, however, was suspended after DAZN said it was unfairly treated by the league when bidding for package B, which is biggest and most lucrative package consisting of the Friday fixture and Saturday afternoon games for a total 196 matches for the seasons 2025-26 to 2028-29.
In a letter sent to the DFL and the clubs, DAZN said that the DFL demanded a bank guarantee within 24 hours, which was impossible. It said that like in the past it had submitted an unrestricted comfort letter to the DFL.
In addition, DAZN said it submitted the highest bid, reportedly of €1.6 billion. The package reportedly went to Sky, which is said to have offered significantly less than DAZN.
While DAZN has threatened to take the dispute to court, the DFL rejected all the accusations and said it is "well positioned for such proceedings."
"The bids submitted by DAZN Limited did not comply with the tender and were therefore not taken into account in the award process. The document subsequently submitted by DAZN from a bank does not change the decision to award the rights to another bidder," the DFL said.
