The exemptions that prove the rule bends
Two clubs operate outside 50+1 entirely under a "substantial support" clause: if a benefactor has funded a club continuously for more than 20 years, the DFL can grant a waiver. Bayer Leverkusen, founded in 1904 by employees of the pharmaceutical company Bayer, and VfL Wolfsburg, founded in 1945 with ties to the Volkswagen factory, both qualify and are run more like conventional single-owner clubs as a result.
Those two exceptions have become the template every ambitious outside investor points to when arguing the rule should flex further.
