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Bayern Munich will earn €105M in Bundesliga TV money alone this season!

Not every team will earn remotely close to that amount, though. Should broadcasting revenue be shared more evenly?

FC Bayern Muenchen v Borussia Moenchengladbach - Bundesliga Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images

Bayern Munich is one the world’s premier football clubs — and they sure will be paid like one in TV money for the current 20-21 season. In just the Bundesliga alone, courtesy of kicker via AZ, Hansi Flick’s Treble winners will receive €105M in broadcasting revenue, more than three times as much as bottom placed Bundesliga teams like Armenia Bielefeld — who will only receive a cool €34M (alas, not bad for a team from a place that doesn’t exist). Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen follow in second and third respectively at €95M and €85M.

In total, nearly €1.5 billion in TV money will be delivered to the 18 Bundesliga clubs, working out an average of around €80M per club. However, as seen above, this distribution is not entirely even — the top and already rich clubs earning the lion’s share of revenue. As a result, in the coming weeks, the DFL will decide whether new distributions for media revenues are necessary.

Understandably, many Bundesliga clubs are in favor of changes that will increase their share of the riches. Bayern Munich are not one of these clubs, as these changes would inevitably reduce their cut of the pie. In the past weeks, the Sudkurve Munchen, one of Bayern’s largest supporter groups came out with a statement criticizing Bayern’s current stance on the matter.

At the end of the day, the Bundesliga needs to avoid a situation akin to La Liga where bottom placed teams simply earn too low a proportion of money to keep the league both competitive and sustainable for clubs. Furthermore, the league must avoid a scenario where revenue is split so evenly that top clubs don’t have the financial strength to challenge for continental glory.

It’s a fine balance that hopefully the DFL will strike perfectly. The DFL is generally a well-run entity, so they have every chance of making a good decision — unlike their parent organization which in contrast, is very poorly run.

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