
"A lot of different interests have to be considered in this process. It was and is important to us that there is no free ride for dubious business activities," said Fernando Carro, chairman of the Bayer 04 board.
FFP proved to be vulnerable in the past because rules could be avoided. "Against that background, we as the Bundesliga must and can live with the compromise reached," added Carro. The ECA with its 240 members, including numerous Bundesliga clubs such as Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund alongside Bayer 04, has played a considerable part in the follow-up ruling to FFP. The results now have to be approved by the executive committee at UEFA.
Media reports have recently said that UEFA will decide on the updated FFP in April. It is believed clubs will only be able to spend up to 70% of their income on transfers, salaries and agents fees. But the salary cap demanded by many will not happen.
The difference between income and expenditure may be balanced out by external investors to the sum of up to €30 million per season. Up to now it has been €10 million per season. The unlimited flow of money from investors, primarily feared by German clubs, will thereby be avoided. The ECA has also decided to give €1 million to help people from the Ukraine affected by the war. This "first financial contribution" is to be used to support a range of initiatives by ECA member clubs.

Four Bayer 04 players are in action at the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations being played in Morocco from 21 December to 18 January 2026: Eliesse Ben Seghir for the hosts, Edmond Tapsoba with Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Maza for Algeria and Christian Kofane with Cameroon. Updates on the AFCON matches involving Werkself players...
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After being nominated for the Bundesliga Goal of the Year 2025, Martin Terrier's wonderful strike for the opener against FC Köln is now also up for selection for the ARD Sportschau Goal of the Month award for December 2025. Bayer 04 fans have until 19:00 CET on 10 January to vote for the French forward.
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After a break of almost two weeks, the Bayer 04 Women begin preparing for games in 2026 on Sunday. Bayer04.de provides an overview of the dates at the start of the second half of the season.
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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