German cartel office: DFL must update its 50+1 regulations
German football authorities must make sure that all clubs are treated in the same way regarding the 50+1 rule which prevents takeovers by investors, the German Federal Cartel Office said on Monday.
The cartel authority said it would close the case if the German Football League (DFL) modifies its rules accordingly.
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The preliminary assessment reiterated that 50+1 does not violate antitrust laws in principle, but that the DFL must gradually end its exemption status for some clubs.
This currently applies for Bayer Leverkusen, Wolfsburg and RB Leipzig. Leverkusen and Wolfsburg are owned by chemical company Bayer and car makers Volkswagen, respectively. Leipzig are backed by drinks makers Red Bull and have only 23 voting members.
Under the 50+1 rule, which only applies in Germany, club members must have a majority of 50% of the vote, plus one.
Exceptions are possible if a a club has been backed by more than 20 years by an investor. The cartel office said that recent rulings by the European Court of Justice mean that the DFL must change its rules in this area.
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"The investigations have shown that the DFL does not take sufficient care in its licensing practice to ensure that all Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 clubs consistently offer their fans the opportunity to be admitted as full new members with voting rights," the statement said.
"The 50+1 rule can only fulfil its objective of shaping the clubs, which can exempt it from antitrust law, if the accessibility of the clubs is strictly enforced.
"The DFL will have to ensure this in the future if it wants the 50+1 rule to be applied with legal certainty," the cartel office said.
The cartel office said it was not investigating against the DFL but upon a request by it from several years ago for a ruling.
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New York Times
38 minutes ago
- New York Times
Primoz Roglic interview: ‘Cycling is one of the toughest sports. That's what attracted me'
As a 21-year-old, painfully aware that he would never become one of the world's best ski jumpers, Primoz Roglic switched course. He would instead develop into one of the world's best cyclists, the winner of five Grand Tours and an Olympic gold medal. But first, Roglic worked on different slopes, cleaning escalators in his local shopping centre. Advertisement In many ways, the job evokes his eventual career. Escalators rise. They fall. They disappear and return. In the interim? The mechanism — the grease, the cogs, the engine — are unseen. The hard work is taken for granted. It keeps on going. This is not to romanticise escalators, but at his best, Roglic possesses a mechanical relentlessness as he climbs. To stride up an escalator's supersized steps even mimics his trademark low cadence. And back then, the job was perfect for the young Slovenian. 'It was good money,' says Roglic. 'I enjoyed it. I would go in the middle of the night, and clean all the escalators before it opened. And that meant I had the whole of the day to ride my bike.' Speaking to The Athletic from his pre-Tour de France training camp in Tignes, Roglic softly laughs at the suggestion that he appeared to enjoy it as much as his cycling. 'You don't necessarily have to be what you're supposed to be, to be this, or that, but you can choose what you want to master,' he asserts later. 'The ultimate thing at the end is to be free and happy, no matter what I do and how I do it.' But interspersed with this sentiment is the inherent difficulties of his chosen life. Despite his honours — the four Vuelta titles, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, three stages of the Tour, as a potted summary — Roglic's disappointments are public and visceral. There have been crashes, the ignominy of being dropped. The life of a professional cyclist, to the majority at least, is to be left bloody, pale and downcast. 'Cycling is something that brings me a lot of challenges in my life,' he says, somewhat understatedly. But Roglic is not using this as a negative description. He uses it to try to explain why he prefers cycling to cleaning escalators. His most recent challenge came in May. Roglic was favourite for the Giro d'Italia, and wore the pink jersey for two days in the first week of the race. Then, struggling with illness, he began to crash — four times in total, before Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe withdrew him on stage 16. Advertisement 'I was struggling with my health a bit,' he explains. 'We discovered I had bacteria which needed antibiotics, and I was not at my best. And then the crashes really did not allow me to improve. But I'll take the way it was. For sure, there was a lot of suffering. It was a hard one.' The Giro, after all, was not this season's main goal. Roglic will return to the Tour de France this week, a race with which he maintains a tempestuous relationship. In 2017, as a 27-year-debutant, he soloed to a stage win over the Col du Galibier, holding off two-time race winner Alberto Contador. His memories of that day? 'I put everything behind me very fast, whether they're good or bad. I don't know if that's lucky or unlucky.' Roglic was at the Tour to stay. He won another stage one year later, finishing fourth in the general classification and proving himself as a rider with Grand Tour-winning potential. His first of four Vuelta a Espana titles followed in 2019. The 2020 Tour de France appeared set to be his moment. Delayed until late August because of Covid-19, Roglic held the yellow jersey for 11 dominant days. Heading into the penultimate stage, a time trial up La Planche des Belles Filles, Roglic had a 57-second advantage over his young compatriot Tadej Pogacar. The next hour would morph into Pogacar's coronation. Roglic, having lost almost two minutes, and the race, rolled across the line looking broken, his helmet askew, but immediately sought out his conqueror. For many in Slovenia, thrilled by the nation's first Tour success, but equally enraptured by Roglic's late-developer story, it brought complicated emotions. Even Pogacar's mother was once quoted saying that she would have preferred Roglic to have won that edition. In the five years since, Roglic has never threatened the Tour's podium. His record? Three starts. Three DNFs. Roglic's record makes him a modern great. He could carry on targeting overall victory in the Giro and the Vuelta. As he remarks himself at one stage: 'My palmares are OK, let's say… they will not completely turn around with one Grand Tour.' With each withdrawal, the psychological and physical toll of the Tour becomes ever more evident. Advertisement The question I have been waiting to ask Roglic is why he keeps coming back. 'Yeah,' he begins, before pausing. 'I mean it's a bit of unfinished business, in this case, that attracts me. Of course, you can call it unlucky, this, that, but on the other hand, you cannot take away that it's the biggest race in cycling. 'I have to be there. I want to be there. I want to come to Paris, cross the line after all these years, and say, 'Oh, well, long time no see, hey?'' Is it more than winning, then, that represents closure? Roglic is not considered amongst the top tier of favourites this year, with a duel expected between Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, with a chance of Remco Evenepoel becoming involved. Some even think he may be outperformed by young German teammate Florian Lipowitz, though Roglic's team manager, Rolf Aldag, told Cyclingnews this week that Red Bull were encouraged by their leader's numbers. 'I wouldn't say I need the Tour to be myself,' Roglic replies, nodding. 'I will be the same athlete whether I win it, whether I don't win it. I'm in the phase of my career where I can do things for myself and nothing more. We all know how fast the guys go each day: Jonas, Remco, Tadej. You really don't necessarily have that much influence. 'It's easy to look over a list of results and to say, 'I was first here, second there, didn't finish then'. But on the other other hand, if you look at it, think about it, and if you really put everything in, that is really the only victory you can get, a victory for yourself. That's the goal for the Tour de France.' Speaking to Patrick Lefevere in the weeks before the Tour, the legendary former principal of Evenepoel's Soudal-Quickstep team, the Belgian brings up Roglic unprompted. 'Roglic, he is one of the diehards,' Lefevere says. 'He never gives up. You hit him, he goes down, he gets back up. He's like a really good boxer.' Advertisement Roglic smiles as Lefevere's quotes are read back to him, before his brow crinkles as he considers how to answer the question of where that attitude came from. The conversation turns to his upbringing, in the Slovenian mining village of Kisovec. His father used to work in the pits. In the evenings, he would take his son to the famous Planica ski jumping hill nearby. 'Of course, you come from your father and mother,' he replies. 'But you're always a little bit different from them. And then I'm also an only child. It meant I had to stand up pretty fast on my own legs, to really learn things for myself. I went away from home early so that I could ski jump in high school, to practice in a different city. I had the right coaches in that period who really taught me a lot. All these small, small, small points make me the way I am now.' The Tour was peripheral back then. His fixation with the race does not come because he grew up watching it like the cycling-obsessed Pogacar, from a town just 50km away. His childhood memories of the Tour are half-formed; he remembers Lance Armstrong, but it was mainly blurs of colour on the television during long, hot summer days. '(My relationship) with the race is completely different now,' he says. 'I was dreaming for my whole life to have the longest flight on skis, you know?' His eyes flit to the corner of the room. 'I mean, I'm still dreaming of that a bit.' In 2007, Roglic crashed, horribly, in the pursuit of that ski-jumping dream. He was knocked unconscious, and airlifted to hospital. Though his injuries were far less serious than they could have been, it was still a long return, and when he was back, further improvement came far more slowly than he had hoped. 'I had problems with injuries,' he explains. 'And I had to be honest with myself. I had a bunch of victories, I was good, but I thought maybe I wasn't the most talented, I was just a really hard worker. Maybe I was not born to be a ski jumper, I did not have Olympic medals, world records, or anything like that. This was the reality.' From his training, Roglic knew he had endurance ability. Studying at university while working on the escalators, he had his VO2 max tested, benchmarking his aerobic ability. The results were comparable with some of the best riders in the peloton. Remembering his glimpses of racing on television, Roglic sold his motorbike, a KTM 125, and bought a bicycle. Advertisement 'When I took it to the guy, he told me, 'There aren't that many people that trade a motorbike for a bicycle. It's usually the opposite way around.' But now I'm stuck with bikes.' Despite his success, Roglic never replaced his KTM. But to his initial training partners in the Slovenian amateur cycling team, it might have appeared he was still riding one, burning up the Balkan nation's sharp climbs. But though he could climb uphill, Roglic still had a long way to go. 'I still have all these old emails on my Gmail from 2012,' he says. 'I came from winter sports, I didn't know anyone. So I emailed Slovenian teams — Perutnina, Radenska and Adria Mobil — asking them for advice. I was 23 years old. If you want to turn professional you cannot just take a bike and ride it. 'I mean, it sounds really easy. But getting used to real cycling? The sort you see on television? It's a completely different story to going on a ride with the local guys behind your house. I'd never been on a TT bike, I had no clue about 99 per cent of racing's aspects. 'I was successful, but I never really had the feeling that I skipped any steps. It did not come too fast. I really had to fight. There were periods where I asked myself, 'Do I really need to do this? Do I really want to suffer so hard, to fight for survival day after day?' I was still at university. I could have just done something normal. 'But on the other hand, I knew that wouldn't really fit me. I couldn't do something easy. Look at the calorie consumption you need in cycling, or the impact on your health of a Grand Tour. It's huge. It's one of the toughest sports. That's what attracted me, that's what got my attention.' And so ultimately, this is why Primoz Roglic keeps coming back. He goes to the Tour because he has the ability to do so, and fight; to pay off the debt to the young man who did not know what to do, who fixed escalators and sold his motorbike. Roglic rides with a desperation in his eyes; he is one of the only riders who gazes up when the gradient steepens, rather than down. Primoz Roglic dislocated his shoulder and had to use a spectator's chair to find the right position to put it back in!#TDF2022 #ITVCycling — ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) July 6, 2022 At the 2022 Tour de France, he popped his own dislocated shoulder back in after crashing into a hay bale, rather than quit the race. He would need surgery three months later. A strange expression crosses Roglic's face when he is reminded of the moment. There is pride, but also a tinge of embarrassment at its innate absurdity. Advertisement 'You know, it's these sort of things that help me,' he says. 'It's because of the way I am. I'm ready to die out there. 'It's probably why I won so many races, but on the other hand, it has cost me so many times. I've made things a lot harder than they should be. 'You can look back at things, but when you're out there, of course you can say it's just a race, but for us riders, it's more than that. You prepare yourself, you put so much in. It's a fight, you know.' Does that resilience, his ability to recover from disappointment apply to all aspects of his life? Or is it just cycling? 'But everybody has that fight in their lives,' Roglic replies instantly. 'It doesn't really matter what kind of job you do. I just try to inspire people, to teach them something good. That's my goal. That's what I want to do.'
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Sherida Spitse: The Netherlands defender with 244 caps – and she is not finished yet
There is nobody at Euro 2025 like Sherida Spitse. At 35, the Netherlands and Ajax captain is the most-capped European player of all time (244 appearances) and she is set to extend that record this month. The midfielder-turned-defender's tally surpasses any male player on record — Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo has 22 fewer caps than Spitse despite making his debut three years earlier. Only seven women, led by the USWNT's Kristine Lilly on 354, have more than Spitse. Her consistency and longevity are unparalleled in Europe but, despite this being her eighth international tournament, she still somehow flies under the radar. 'There aren't loads of super fans of Sherida,' says Mark Parsons, her national team coach from 2021-22. 'But I've been in winning environments where you overachieve. I've been in environments where you underachieve. The difference is often people like Sherida — the leadership, intensity, focus and dedication.' This summer, Spitse will captain the Netherlands in the tournament's most difficult group. They play France, who knocked them out of Euro 2022 in the quarter-finals, holders England and Wales. They must overachieve to progress, and the difference Spitse makes will be more important than ever. GO DEEPER Women's Euros 2025: Guide to Group D - can England escape toughest group? When 16-year-old Spitse made her international debut in 2006, she was playing in the boys' team at her local side VV Sneek, in the north of the country, before moving on to Heerenveen when the Dutch women's league was founded a year later. She earned her first cap in a 4-0 loss to England in the Netherlands' unsuccessful qualifying campaign for the 2007 World Cup. Advertisement Eleven years later, after two more international tournaments and spells at Norwegian side Kvinner and back home at Twente, she faced England again in what was the best summer of her career. In front of a sell-out crowd of almost 30,000 in Enschede, Sarina Wiegman's Netherlands won 3-0 to reach the Euros final on home soil. In the final three days later she won player of the match, scored the decisive third goal and lifted the European Championship trophy in the 4-2 victory over Denmark. Spitse played every minute of the tournament. 'Championship-winning teams have to have one or two people like Sherida,' says Parsons, who took over from Wiegman when the Dutchwoman became England head coach in 2021. He was in the job for a year before Andries Jonker replaced him. 'Her ability to bring 100 per cent every single day is incredible, to demand 100 per cent from other people too. You need these types of characters, leaders, and that's Sherida.' GO DEEPER Euro 2025: Netherlands team guide - a stellar squad with injury issues and a daunting task Anouk Dekker, Spitse's former international team-mate, says Spitse is 'one of the key figures in every team that she plays in'. The two played together at Twente from 2012-14 and for the Netherlands at Euro 2017, as well as the 2015 and 2019 World Cups. 'She's evolved into a true leader off the pitch, and being that role model the new generation needs,' Dekker says. 'I consider her a friend and someone I really respect. She can still be so important with her communication and leading the team.' Since 2017, the Netherlands have needed her leadership. In 2019, they lost 2-0 in the World Cup final to the U.S. and their European title defence under Parsons in 2022 was scuppered by fitness issues. Forward Vivianne Miedema, formerly of Arsenal and now at Manchester City, missed two group games through Covid-19 infection, while former Chelsea defender Aniek Nouwen and captain and goalkeeper Sari van Veenendaal were injured in the opening game. It continued a pattern of injury and illness that had played havoc with their preparations. Advertisement 'I had played 30 different people in six months because of Covid and injuries,' Parsons says. 'There were so many issues, but Sherida was consistent. 'That gave us a chance. We got out of a group of Switzerland, Portugal and Sweden (before being eliminated by France in the quarter-finals). It would have been a lot worse without Sherida.' Parsons compares Spitse's leadership and character to Christine Sinclair, with whom he worked at Portland Thorns. Canada's Sinclair made 331 international appearances — a total only bettered by Lilly. 'Sherida will absolutely be giving her best but demand the best,' says Parsons. 'At first, you're probably like, 'Why is she like this?'. And what you realise is she wants the very best for the Dutch national team. 'Once you realise that, the young players have a role model in someone who maximises their quality, maximises their abilities. It's invaluable for a group to have. 'While I had her in my leadership group, I wish I had empowered her more.' Spitse's leadership is part of the reason for her new two-year contract with Ajax, announced on June 17. She helps develop the club's young talent, such as American teenager Lily Yohannes, and the deal was signed with a view to a potential coaching role once she finishes playing. Spitse has started every Eredivisie match with Ajax for three consecutive seasons, including their title-winning 2022-23 campaign. She will now occasionally skip a training session to keep her body fresh — having been the first to the field and the last to leave. 'She is so strong, so fit and so consistent in putting football first and doing everything that needs to be done to be there every weekend,' says Dekker. Her fitness has persisted despite a heavier footballing load than others with similar international records. Spitse's 244 caps are outstripped by six Americans and Canadian Sinclair but many of them played the bulk of their career at a time when female players had far fewer club fixtures. From 2007-25, Spitse has played more than 350. In recent years, her role has changed. Parsons admits he was surprised to see Jonker deploy Spitse, traditionally a central midfielder with an eye for goal, on the right of a back three at the 2023 World Cup in Australia. 'I didn't think it would work,' says Parsons. 'In possession, I thought it would be brilliant, because Sherida's quality is when she's faced up, looking forward with the ball — but I was a bit concerned defensively. That's a big new job. I was wrong.' Advertisement In their five World Cup matches, the Netherlands conceded only two goals with Spitse on the pitch. She started every game. It was an impressive transition into a defensive role. Dekker is not surprised by how Spitse, who now predominantly plays as a centre-half in a back four for Ajax and the Netherlands, has adapted. 'When I played behind her or in the same position, you can trust her 100 per cent,' Dekker says. 'She has such great technique, vision and positioning. You can't doubt her, if she's covering you — she will be there.' Spitse has played in defence in all six of the Netherlands' Nations League fixtures this year, starting three. It is unclear whether she will be a starter for Jonker, who will be replaced as head coach by Wiegman's long-time assistant Arjan Veurink after the tournament. Starting or not, she will have a key role in Switzerland. 'Sometimes I feel like there's not enough respect for Sherida,' Dekker says. 'She's a true leader and a remarkable person. Her 244 caps say enough.'
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Andre Silva remembered: How Diogo Jota's brother forged his own football path
Diogo Jota did not need to think twice. The question was posed during an interview with ESPN's 'Ball Knowledge' programme in January, with the Liverpool striker being asked which players he most enjoyed watching and why. 'My brother,' Jota said, with a laugh. 'My brother plays in Penafiel, the second division in Portugal. He is by far the one I most enjoyed.' Advertisement That brother was Andre Filipe Teixeira da Silva, Diogo's younger sibling by three years. It was Andre that Diogo most loved watching when he wasn't starring for Liverpool and Portugal, and it was Andre who was by his side when the car they were driving in through north-west Spain crashed in the small hours of Thursday morning, killing them both. Their funeral will take place in their home city of Gondomar today. The shockwave caused by the tragedy is still rippling through the football world. Diogo — whose full name was Diogo Jose Teixeira da Silva — was recently married and he leaves behind three young children. His career in professional football was supremely successful: a winner of three major trophies in England with Liverpool, including last season's Premier League title, a full Portugal international and with 136 goals at senior club level. Diogo's name might be the more familiar, but Andre's passing will leave an emotional scar that runs just as deep. He was also carving his own path in football and was a regular starter for Penafiel, a club based in the city of the same name, around 25 miles east of Porto in northern Portugal. But that journey, no doubt inspired by the success of his older brother, was cut tragically short. There are many parallels with Diogo's story. Andre also grew up as a football obsessive in Gondomar, a small municipality to the east of Porto in northern Portugal, with his parents Joaquim Silva and Isabel Silva. People in Gondomar remember the two boys playing football in the street. 'I lived right across the street, and I would hear 'boom, boom, boom' — it was him and his brother,' neighbour Joao Ferreira told Portuguese news outlet JN. 'One would play goalkeeper, at the entrance to a garage, and the other would kick the ball.' Another local, Ventura Pereira, recalls the pair 'breaking down gates' playing football and that his wife, 'who knows nothing about football', knew both were going to be special players. Advertisement Andre started out playing for the local team, again just like Diogo, before leaving, aged 11, to join the youth setup at Porto. He was a tricky winger with fast feet and an infectious energy that allowed him to play across the front line. On Thursday, the club posted pictures on their social media accounts of a proud young Andre holding an award during his time at the club. André Silva (2000-2025). Descansa em paz 💙#MarcaPorto — FC Porto (@FCPorto) July 3, 2025 Andre clearly had talent, spending time on the books at Pacos de Ferreira, Famalicao and Boavista during his teenage years, all first-division sides at the time. He returned to Gondomar aged 21 to take his first steps in senior football, before his big break: a move to Penafiel in July 2023, seeing him jump two divisions to the Portuguese second tier. Things could not have started much better for Andre in professional football, winning a penalty for his new side just 25 minutes into his debut against Leixoes. With an incredible piece of skill, he flicked the ball through the legs of Ricardo Teixeira as he looked to control a long throw into the box — the ball not touching the ground before it bounced off Andre's heel — before wriggling goal-side of the defender and falling to the ground after a bump to the hips. Just over half an hour later, he had scored his first-ever goal at this level of football, sliding in at the back post to toe-poke home a low, driven cross. He celebrated incredulously, clearly overcome with emotion, pointing to the name on his back before disappearing into a huddle of team-mates. It was the reaction of a man — then only 23 — who had taken his opportunity, the adrenaline pumping as he felt his career opening up in front of him. Andre's quiet determination would characterise the rest of his time at the club, his tenacity and head-down approach seeing him quickly establish himself as a player that manager Helder Cristovao could rely on. He featured in all but two of Penafiel's games this season, with the club dreaming of an unlikely promotion to the top tier in second place as recently as March before a downturn in form left them in 11th. Advertisement He would score six more goals for Penafiel — a powerful close-range strike against Nacional, a sharp run in behind and near-post finish against Portimonense, and even a brave header against UD Leiria — all celebrated with the same sense of unbridled joy. 'Andre brought different things to our game, a lot of speed,' Cristovao told Sport TV, 'but more than the footballer, we have to talk about the person, a very well-rounded kid. He just finished his management course at university — he never stopped studying, he always continued to study and work. He took business because he had started a business with his brother.' Another of Andre's clubs, Pacos de Ferreira, remarked upon his 'humility, responsibility and immense dedication', his unassuming nature a recurring theme for those who had spent time with him. His brother, Diogo, had made it in football, and Andre was well on his way to forging a fine career closer to home, but both were grounded, hard-working players who were grateful for the opportunities that their talent had given them. Cristovao says it best with a single word, 'menino' — 'kid' — and far too much time was taken away from Andre. Portuguese football will mourn the player it has lost, and wonder about what he may yet have achieved, but the greatest tragedy revolves around a family that has seen two cherished brothers ripped away so cruelly.
