The general horror is great in the Bundesliga after Erling Haaland left Germany and Robert Lewandowski may follow.

A sense of inferiority is rampant, reinforced by the fact that Paris St-Germain's Qatari owners are investing more than half a billion euros to ensure Kylian Mbappé stays at their club for three more years.

The Bundesliga is losing its most exciting stars and will soon catch up in international competitions, say Mahner.

Hans-Joachim Watzke, who as managing director of Borussia Dortmund, chairman of the supervisory board of the German Football League (DFL) and board member of the international club association ECA, has now had enough of this whining, as he explained to a small group of journalists on Tuesday .

"When it comes to foreign marketing, we can't always just talk about the fact that Lewandowski might be gone and that Haaland is definitely gone.

But we also have to talk about the fact that our football is extremely clean, that we're not being ruled by any dark forces," he said, calling on the Bundesliga to have more self-confidence.

"Ever Bigger Theme"

The "democratic culture" in the German clubs could be made visible as an alternative to the clubs cooperating with dubious financiers and also arouse sympathy where some experts see the greatest opportunities for expansion: abroad.

"I can imagine a few clubs where I don't know if everyone would be enthusiastic if the management said: We're going to take a trip to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial," he said, alluding to the money from the Arabian Peninsula pumped-up clubs.

Watzke believes that such attitude and moral issues "will become an increasingly important issue in the coming years".

The well-known tendency of many managers in Dortmund to constantly explain defeats by referring to the higher budget of the competition is getting on his nerves more and more.

"German football must not always use financial disadvantages as an alibi for a lack of sporting success," he said.

Watzke follows small clubs

“You can do it with a little less and correspondingly good work.

Eintracht Frankfurt has now proven in the Europa League that this is possible. ”These were interesting words, because the official of the big BVB is swinging into the line of argumentation of many smaller clubs, which have long been saying that the idea, economically with Manchester City, Paris Wanting to keep up with St-Germain or Chelsea is a mistake.

Bayer Leverkusen's managing director Fernando Carro, who sits on the ECA board with Watzke, has just demanded that the league must open up new sources of money in order to remain competitive in the European cups.

"As clubs with international standards, we have to ensure that (DFL boss) Donata Hopfen has good arguments when she speaks to foreign TV partners," said Carro.

Decided against playoffs

However, this requires "more excitement in the league, successes in European competitions and that all clubs try to be present in important international markets in order to make the league more visible and to strengthen it".

Apparently Watzke doesn't believe that it will work that easily.

He decidedly rejected the simplest way to keep the title race in the Bundesliga exciting: a small play-off round with two semi-finals and a final at the end of a season in which – apart from the championship – all decisions are made as before .

"I'm not a friend of it," he said, so far "not a second" has been said about such a model in the DFL Presidium.

"That's at best an ultima ratio if Bayern Munich wins the championship five more times," he said.

The Dortmunders are still apparently convinced that they can win this title without a new mode.