Dusseldorf - The boom times of high-digit growth for German football may have come to an end with the advent of the global financial crisis but the Bundesliga looks better prepared than most to weather the financial storm.

"Football must realise that the business can no longer reckon with growth," said German Football League (DFL) vice-president Peter Peters, even though the effects of the economic slowdown have yet to fully hit many of the country's top clubs.

However, Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke expects repercussions for the Bundesliga over the medium term, saying "there will be cuts and bruises."

Those clubs that failed to lock down long-term agreements with their most important sponsors and business partners before the onset of the financial crisis are the ones most concerned about the future.

"It is unbelievably difficult to find the right sponsors in this environment," admitted Ralf Koenigs, president of Bundesliga bottom club Borussia Moenchengladbach, whose contract with main sponsor, Japanese technology firm Kyocera, runs out at the end of the season.

Borussia are not alone as Karlsruhe, Energie Cottbus, VfL Bochum and Hertha Berlin will also be looking for new sponsorship deals with their partners when they run out at the end of the 2009 season.

While clubs like Dortmund and SV Hamburg can relax safe in the knowledge that they have already successfully extended deals with their main sponsors, these five clubs yet to do so face an uncertain year.

"Those clubs struggling in the lower reaches of the table are facing losses of revenue," said Hartmut Zastrow, head of the Cologne sports company Sport+Markt.

The catchphrase of the moment is "sink costs" and most clubs used the winter transfer window to reduce the size of their squads rather than sign new players.

Schalke 04 offloaded seven players and Dortmund six with loan signings now the preferred method of signing up new talent.

Corporate ticket sales are also suffering with Bayer Leverkusen especially hard hit as the club is looking to sell 2,400 business seats when its BayArena stadium is completed in the summer.

"I don't think a huge increase in turnover is possible or that we can tap new sources of finance," admitted Leverkusen CEO Wolfgang Holzhaeuser.

Despite the problems, the people running Bundesliga clubs still feel the German league is in a better position to see out the financial crisis than the English, Italian and Spanish leagues.

"I haven't noticed any serious effects from the financial crisis yet," said Eintracht Frankfurt chairman Heribert Bruchhagen.

Like officials from the nation's number one club Bayern Munich, Zastrow believes the Bundesliga could actually benefit from the current economic situation.

"It presents the opportunity to narrow the gap to the top leagues," he says, pointing out that the Bundesliga will no longer be priced out of the market for the game's top players.

Schalke president Josef Schnusenberg agrees that the Bundesliga can come out of the economic slowdown in a stronger position than it went in.

"I am convinced that the Bundesliga is the model of the future for European football because the solid financial standing of our clubs will be to our long-term advantage," he says. (dpa)