Sponsorships
Since the beginning of the 2020/2021 season, Borussia Dortmund has had two kit sponsors. The team wears kits bearing the logo of Evonik Industries AG in all international club competitions, friendlies staged abroad and DFB Cup matches, while 1&1 Telecommunication SE is the kit sponsor for Bundesliga matches.
Borussia Dortmund’s newest official Premium Partner for the next five years is DEW21 Dortmunder Energie- und Wasserversorgung GmbH. Both companies will leverage their proximity to one another to further strengthen their social and cultural outreach efforts in the city of Dortmund.
adesso SE is now the new primary and kit sponsor for Borussia Dortmund’s youth squads. The Dortmund-based IT service provider will remain a sponsor until 2023, and from the 2021/2022 season onwards will also be the official kit sponsor for Borussia Dortmund’s new women’s team.
Borussia Dortmund extended its contract with its Champion Partner ROWE Marketing GmbH early until 30 June 2025.
In the 2020/2021 season, Borussia Dortmund also added Bybit (Wechain Fintech Pte. Ltd.) as a new Champion Partner.
The COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact sponsoring in the 2020/2021 season. The fact that matches were mostly held without spectators placed restrictions on match-day advertising and the contractual claims of hospitality clients in particular could not be met in full. As a result, Borussia Dortmund saw its revenue here decline.
Transfer deals
Five players left Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2020. After loaning Ömer Toprak for the past financial year, SV Werder Bremen exercised its buy option to permanently secure the defender’s services. Mario Götze joined Dutch first-division club PSV Eindhoven in the 2020/2021 season after his contract with Borussia Dortmund was not extended at the end of the previous season. Achraf Hakimi’s loan spell also ended on 30 June 2020, at which time he, too, departed Borussia Dortmund bound for Inter Milan. Dženis Burnić made the switch to 1. FC Heidenheim in the second Bundesliga division. André Schürrle signed a rescission agreement with the club and ended his football career.
Three other players left Borussia Dortmund on loan to other clubs: Leonardo Balerdi was loaned to Olympique Marseille in France’s Ligue 1. After signing an early contract extension with Borussia Dortmund until 30 June 2022, Immanuel Pherai was loaned to PEC Zwolle for the current season. Both loan agreements are set to expire on 30 June 2021. At the start of October 2020, Marius Wolf was loaned to 1. FC Cologne until the end of the season.
Sergio Gómez had spent both the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 seasons on loan to Spanish side SD Huesca, and Borussia Dortmund has now reached an agreement to transfer him to Belgian championship record-holders RSC Anderlecht on a permanent basis as at 1 July 2021. His contract, which was most recently extended until 2022, will be terminated as part of the transfer.
Jeremy Toljan also spent the past two seasons on loan, plying his trade at Italian Serie A side U.S. Sassuolo. Certain conditions have triggered the purchase option in his contract, resulting in a permanent transfer effective 1 July 2021.
Investments in the professional squad
Borussia Dortmund signed three new players in the summer of 2020. Thomas Meunier departed Paris Saint-Germain for Borussia Dortmund on a free transfer. Borussia Dortmund signed Jude Bellingham from Birmingham City and loaned Brazil U23 international Reinier Jesus Carvalho from Real Madrid until 30 June 2022.
Felix Passlack returned to Borussia Dortmund following his loan to Fortuna Sittard. The 22-year-old’s contract was set to expire at the end of the season, and in May 2021 it was extended by two years until 2023.
In November 2020, Giovanni Reyna signed an early contract extension until 2025. February saw Marwin Hitz sign an early contract extension until 2023. Steffen Tigges and Ansgar Knauff, two of Borussia Dortmund’s talented youngsters, signed their first professional contracts and joined the senior squad.
Borussia Dortmund signed Soumaila Coulibaly, a 17-year-old centre back from Paris Saint-Germain.
At the end of May 2021, Borussia Dortmund signed goalkeeper Gregor Kobel from Bundesliga rivals VfB Stuttgart ahead of the new season. The 23-year-old signed a contract that runs until 30 June 2026.
TV Marketing
The call for tenders concerning the centralised marketing strategy for distributing the national and international TV marketing income for the 2021/2022 to 2024/2025 seasons has been concluded for the time being. The distribution of the TV marketing income was resolved in December 2020. Greater stability and more solidarity are the objectives. In light of the decline in income from national media rights, the consolidation being seen on international markets and the significant decrease in revenue at the club level due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the objective of the future distribution system is primarily to ensure stability during this period of uncertainty, while setting the course for the future and promoting solidarity at the same time. This offers Bundesliga clubs planning certainty during the current difficult situation.
Nevertheless, a season without interruptions and timely payments by partners in line with their contracts are essential for ensuring the amount and timing of the distribution payouts.
The COVID-19 pandemic is also affecting marketing income in UEFA club competitions. In order to limit the financial impact of losses caused by the pandemic on the clubs participating in UEFA club competitions in the 2019/2020 season, UEFA has decided to compensate for the income shortfall by cutting future payouts to participating clubs over five seasons (from the 2019/2020 to the 2023/2024 season).
For the 2024/2025 season, the UEFA Champions League will follow a new format. A total of 36 teams will compete in a single league, signalling a departure from the current format’s 32-team group stage. This will likely further boost the international TV marketing income generated from competing in the UEFA Champions League.
Match operations
Due to the functional health and safety protocol, there were no interruptions to the past 2020/2021 season.
In contrast to the original regulation, under which spectators were excluded from matches until 31 October 2020, Borussia Dortmund was able to welcome back a limited number of spectators for its home matches against Borussia Mönchengladbach, FC Schalke 04 and SC Freiburg at the beginning of the season. All subsequent home matches had to be played behind closed doors due to the pandemic. This had a massive impact on the earnings potential of match operations.
As one season draws to a close it is customary for season tickets go on sale for the next season, but as in the previous year this had to be put on hold due to the continuing uncertainties surrounding stadium capacity in 2021/2022 in the wake of COVID-19.
Other
In December 2020, Borussia Dortmund parted ways with head coach Lucien Favre after two and a half years. His assistant coach Edin Terzic took over as interim head coach until the end of the season. He was assisted by Sebastian Geppert, who until then had coached the U17 squad, and Otto Addo, who coaches BVB’s top talents.
From the 2021/2022 season onwards, Marco Rose from Bundesliga rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach will take over as new head coach at Borussia Dortmund, while Edin Terzic has extended his contract through to 30 June 2025 and will be assuming the newly created role of technical director.
Borussia Dortmund remains committed to continuity among its sporting management and extended the contract with its head of the professional squad Sebastian Kehl early until 30 June 2025. Sebastian Kehl will take over from Michael Zorc as sporting director from 1 July 2022. Borussia Dortmund also extended the contract with its youth academy director Lars Ricken early until 30 June 2025.
Beginning in the 2021/2022 season, Borussia Dortmund will have a women’s team. Instead of acquiring the licence of another professional club we are organically developing and promoting women’s football from within our club.
A total of ten players from Borussia Dortmund’s professional squad were called up to their respective national teams for the European Championship, including Germany internationals Mats Hummels and Emre Can.
Borussia Dortmund lifted the DFB Cup for the fifth time after victories in 1965, 1989, 2012 and 2017. The team put on a sensational performance to defeat RB Leipzig 4:1 in the final, which was held at Berlin’s Olympiastadion.
Borussia Dortmund extended the contracts of its managing directors. Hans-Joachim Watzke will continue to serve as CEO until 31 December 2025 and remains responsible for setting the Company’s strategic course, as well as for the areas of “Sports”, “Communications” and “Human Resources”.
On the other hand, Thomas Treß and Carsten Cramer, whose contracts were set to expire on 30 June 2022, each signed early extensions until 30 June 2025. Thomas Treß will remain responsible for “Finance”, “Organisation”, “Legal” and “Investor Relations”. Carsten Cramer is responsible for the “Sales & Marketing” and “Digitisation” areas.
Twelve of Europe’s top clubs launched a new breakaway “Super League” to compete with the UEFA Champions League, only to cancel this project mere days later.
In early September 2020, Borussia Dortmund started live streaming on BVB’s official Twitch channel. YouTube star Erné “FeelFIFA” Embeli hosts the interactive program.
In the past financial year, Borussia Dortmund published its fourth Sustainability Report entitled “United in solidarity. No matter what.” at https://verantwortung.bvb.de/2020/en/home-en/. *
* The content accessible via the link does not constitute part of this management report. In accordance with the statutory requirements, KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft has neither audited the cross-references nor the information to which the cross-references refer.