As Jonathan Wilson writes on page 25 [of the 3-9 May New Statesman] , there is much for British football fans to admire in the success of German clubs in this year’s Champions League. However, it is not just the thrilling football of “quick transitions” with which Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund have swept all before them that makes the German game so attractive. Supporters of Premier League teams, who are charged eyewatering amounts to watch clubs owned by Russian oligarchs or Middle Eastern petro-plutocrats, must look longingly at the Bundesliga. Their German counterparts pay modest sums to stand on the terraces (something the English are still not allowed to do) to watch sides full of native talent. Many supporters also have a financial stake in the clubs they follow: the “50+1” rule requires that club members must own a minimum of 51 per cent of its shares. Leveraged buyouts by foreign owners of great sporting institutions cannot happen in Germany.
This model of club ownership is a microcosm of the structure of the German economy more generally. As Maurice Glasman argues on page 24, German economic success is a function of a system of institutions that promote partnership between labour and capital, proper vocational training and focused regional investment.
The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, who struggled so miserably to explain his party’s economic policy in a recent BBC radio interview, could do worse than start learning from the Germans.