The leadership of the German Football League (DFL) has failed badly. This could be seen in the sometimes defiant reactions after the referendum defeat on Wednesday among the 36 professional clubs in Germany around the investor model. DFL executive committee spokesman Hans-Joachim Watzke seemed partly offended, while interim managing directors Axel Hellmann and Oliver Leki seem to have been hit hard. After months of work, they have failed to convey their ambitious plan to a two-thirds majority of DFL members. Mission missed. Hellmann and Leki will leave their part-time jobs at the end of the month. What remains? A disaster.

The refusal to "lend" a private equity company 12.5 percent of the marketing rights for 20 years and around two billion euros may satisfy the critics. But saved, as they now claim, they have nothing. On the contrary. In recent months, all parties have tried to exert influence in backroom talks. The main result is the inability to reach agreement in a very difficult situation.

All clubs, whether in the first or second division, are aware that the DFL urgently needs to be modernised if they all want to keep pace with the development of football in Europe. And yet five managed to evade the vote by abstaining. When Oke Göttlich, president of FC St. Pauli, then called for "a clear strategy", it must have become clear to even the last person what ails professional football in this country: he doesn't know what he wants.

The picture, which is at least irritating for sponsors, investors and potential lenders, will have consequences for the overall structure of the DFL. Even before the halfway public discussion about the investor model, insiders expressed doubts about the inner strength of professional football, about its ability to stick together. Watzke hinted at it at the moment of defeat. He questioned the principle of solidarity and read from the voting behaviour a certain lack of interest on the part of DFL members "in the competitiveness" of German football.

At that moment, the DFL executive committee spoke with the tongue of the managing director of Borussia Dortmund. His counterpart at FC Bayern, Oliver Kahn, sees the gap to England and Spain growing further after Wednesday's secret ballot. Both are – in the premier league – not alone in their point of view. Their strategy is - despite the DFL's external image - very clear. The interests of the House of Lords and the House of Commons are therefore too far apart. Only one conclusion can be drawn from this: the DFL is on the way to splitting.