Vodafone Germany pulls out of football rights battle

Vodafone Germany will not seek to acquire Bundesliga football rights, the company’s CEO Friedrich Joussen has said.

Joussen told WirtschaftsWoche that he wanted to negotiate a partnership agreement with whoever won the rights after the bidding process was complete. However he said there was no business model that provided a positive return on the rights, which he said were too expensive.

There had earlier been expectation that Vodafone could bid for mobile and online rights alone or with a partner.