Rummenigge Targets A Billion Per Year TV Deal

The Chairman of Bayern Munich Karl-Heinz Rummenigge is targeting a Bundesliga television deal which brings in more than a billion euros (1.05 billion dollars) per season but again demanded the top clubs receive a larger share of the revenue.

"Step one must be an increase in the income to over 1 billion euros," he told Kicker magazine in an interview published Monday. "In the second step it is then about the sharing mechanism."

The current Bundesliga currently generates 2.5 billion euros (2.65 billion dollars) from its four-year TV deal to 2017 but this is dwarfed by what is earned by Premier League clubs in England. The recently agreed deal for the 2016 to 2019 seasons will deliver 6.9 billion euros to the English league's 20 clubs.

And though Rummenigge fears Bayern could be left behind in the race for elite players, he claims he is speaking in the interests of the whole league.

"Bayern is ready to actively support the German Football League (DFL) in this goal," he said. "We lead every discussion about solidarity (among clubs) so long as it doesn't endanger our competitiveness internationally."

Wolfsburg sport director Klaus Allofs said he understood Bayern's position but warned that a different method of redistribution could cause a division in the Bundesliga.

"What we have done in recent years in the distribution of TV money already requires a lot of solidarity from the larger clubs," he said after the match with Augsburg Sunday. "I can understand the reasoning of Bayern."

But with Bayern already dominating and seemingly on course for a record fourth straight title, Allofs stressed "that we cannot drift too far apart in the Bundesliga."

Second division St Pauli recently suggested that the so called works clubs - Wolfsburg, Bayer Leverkusen, Hoffenheim and, from 2017, Hanover - be excluded from television income as they already benefit from being exempted from the German 50+1 club ownership rule.

This has attracted criticism from others in the league though, including Augsburg sport director Stefan Reuter.

"This is a provocation that the big clubs could go out and be marketed separately," he said. "That would be a disaster for the league.

"I believe that solidarity is very important for the league."