Kirch face setbacks in Bundesliga plans

After gambling again on Leo Kirch, the German football league (DFL), has not yet received the EUR 3 billion bank guarantee that the entrepreneur was to give for the TV rights.

Kirch has an end-of-January deadline to put up the guarantee.

A slew of German banks was badly burned when the Kirch Group collapsed under a mountain of debt in 2002, and while the Commerzbank is reportedly close to backing the venture and is reviewing the plan, it has yet to sign on.

Kirch associate Dieter Hahn has been trying to get a letter of guarantee from a bank since October.

As part of his ambitious plans to get back into business, Kirch tapped Dagmar Brandenstein, head of ARD and ZDF’s joint sports rights company Sport A, to oversee the Bundesliga rights sales.

The good reputation of Brandenstein has played an important role concerning the introduction of the strategy of the DFL to get involved again with Kirch.

However, Brandenstein, who is considered as an expert on sports-rights trading and as a tough negotiating partner who landed rights for the 2006, 2010 and 2014 World Cup for ARD and ZDF, is apparently not allowed to work for a competitor of Sport A until June 2008, too late for her to head Bundesliga sales for Kirch.

Sport A looks set to play hardball with Kirch, and ARD executive Thomas Gruber, has said he sees no reason to release Brandenstein from her contract early.

Kirch grabbed broadcasting rights for the DFL in October for six years starting in 2009.

Broadcasters vying to buy the rights from Kirch, who acts as an intermediary, include Premiere AG, ARD and Deutsche Telekom AG.

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.