Kasper Urges Bundesliga to Expand Global Presence
Bayern Munich’s latest summer tour has barely left the runway, but the club’s marketing chief has already lit a fire under the rest of German football.
Rouven Kasper, the man charged with selling Bayern to the world, has delivered a blunt message to the Bundesliga: stop staying at home and start acting like a global league.
“Far too little”: Kasper calls out Bundesliga inertia
Speaking to Sky Sports before Bayern departed on their tenth pre-season trip to Asia, Kasper laid out the problem in stark terms. While the Premier League and La Liga clubs criss-cross the globe every summer, the Bundesliga’s presence abroad remains thin.
He pointed to this off-season as proof. RB Leipzig went on a tour abroad after the end of the season. Bayern and Borussia Dortmund are on the road this summer. Paderborn will fly to the United States in September. And that, he argued, is pretty much it.
“This is far too little! Bundesliga clubs need to think more strategically,” he said, hammering what he sees as a culture of passivity among Germany’s top-flight sides.
The contrast with England drives his point. “The English travel the world, and that means the German clubs have to be proactive too. You cannot stay at home and then complain about declining revenues. If you do nothing, you will get nothing.”
For Kasper, this is not a cosmetic issue about shirt sales and social media followers. It’s about survival in a global market where attention, and money, flow to whoever shows up most often.
Falling media money, shrinking footprint
Kasper also highlighted a trend that should worry every executive in German football: declining television revenues in key overseas markets.
“It is unfortunate that the decline in media revenues in countries such as the United States and Japan has become a reality,” he said. That drop, in his view, is not a reason to retreat. It is a warning siren.
He wants the league authorities to step up. Bayern can tour, invest and promote, but they cannot carry a 34-club professional system on their own.
“This is an additional reason for the league association to work with us to find strategic mechanisms to boost activities, because Bayern Munich cannot travel everywhere on its own,” Kasper stressed.
The numbers underline his argument. The Bundesliga currently brings in 218 million euros from international television rights, and 302 million euros in total when sponsorships are added. Respectable figures in isolation. Brutal when compared.
The Premier League earns around ten times as much from its global deals. La Liga roughly three times. That is not a gap; it is a chasm, and Kasper is effectively warning that it will only widen if German clubs continue to treat foreign tours as optional extras rather than core business.
Bayern lead the way – but can’t go it alone
While he criticises the league’s collective effort, Bayern themselves continue to operate like a club that understands the stakes.
Their latest Asian tour takes them to Jeju Island in South Korea before moving on to Hong Kong, running until 8 August. On the pitch, the programme is light but targeted: a friendly against Jeju SK on 4 August, then a meeting with Aston Villa on 7 August.
Off the pitch, the work is heavier. Public sessions, commercial events, sponsor activations, and constant contact with fans in markets the club sees as crucial to its future.
Kasper made it clear Bayern’s global roadmap is already drawn. “Our target markets are clearly defined. In the two Americas, we have so far focused on North and Central America, but South America is becoming increasingly interesting. In Asia the matter is also clear, and we must turn our attention towards India, Indonesia and Thailand and undertake new ventures there.”
It is an aggressive, almost relentless, approach: deepen in North and Central America, push into South America, and expand in Asia beyond traditional strongholds into vast, emerging markets.
A league at a crossroads
Strip away the corporate language and Kasper’s message to the Bundesliga is simple: get on the plane.
He sees a league with a strong product on the pitch, powerful fan culture and modern stadiums, but one that still behaves like a domestic competition in an era when the biggest rivals are building fanbases in every time zone.
Bayern will keep flying, meeting sponsors in Hong Kong and fans in Jeju, plotting routes into India, Indonesia and Thailand. The question now is whether the rest of German football is willing to follow them out into the world—or stay home and watch the gap grow.
