Vodafone CEO de Groot on BVB deal: "Both share a hands-on mentality" | OneFootball

The name Marcel de Groot may not be familiar to many Borussia Dortmund fans. He is the CEO of BVB's new main sponsor, Vodafone. In an extensive interview with Ruhr Nachrichten, he discusses various aspects of this new partnership, which in turn brings up some interesting perspectives for BVB fans.

As his name suggests, de Groot is Dutch. Accordingly, his favorite club is not BVB, but Ajax Amsterdam. This doesn't make a difference to his company's commitment to the Westphalians, but it perhaps makes de Groot a bit more approachable. He enjoys going to the stadium with his children, but leaves his phone in his pocket, except to take a few photos of the atmosphere in the Amsterdam Arena.

Which brings us to the topic at hand, as Vodafone is promoting its communication services with Borussia Dortmund, earning BVB the 30 million euros per year mentioned in the RN article.

Market analyses accompanied the decision for BVB, but the decision-makers at Vodafone also felt that there could be no better partner in football than Borussia Dortmund. They were impressed by the power of the "Yellow Wall", but also identified with BVB's role as a challenger to the industry giants. In addition, de Groot sees a "real can-do attitude" on both sides.

Photo: IMAGO

Mentality of BVB and Vodafone are similar

The fact that they had to compromise and display the Vodafone logo in black instead of red on the jerseys was no problem for the CEO, as one might expect. By the way, they don't expect any titles from BVB, although they wouldn't mind. The decision for BVB was made before it was clear that they would qualify for the Champions League. But they are prepared for good and bad times in the future, given the five-year term.

Other topics discussed are less relevant to the partnership between BVB and Vodafone, such as the lack of digitalization in Germany or de Groot's call for longer working hours. In order to play in the Champions League of digitalization, changes are necessary. Vodafone wants to tackle these, and employees need to realize that the current prosperity is not a given.

An expansion of Vodafone's commitment, for example through the acquisition of share packages, is currently not on the agenda for Marcel de Groot, who also claims to be a fan of the (not only) Johan Cruyff-influenced "total football" - but he wouldn't shy away from a fair tackle if necessary.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.