Arunava about Football A look at football & the world through my eyes!
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For years, the Bundesliga was held up as the shining light of how a football league should be run. It went out on its own—certainly when it comes to the world’s major leagues—on things such as club ownership and ticket prices, and the league reaped the awards. Off the pitch, attendances were buoyant, and clubs were not suffering the financial meltdowns that were a feature in other nations’ leagues. On the pitch, those fans were being entertained, German clubs were competing and winning in European competitions, and, at a national level, well, Germany were doing what Germany always did. But suddenly things seem to have changed. If you take a look at a snapshot of the game in Germany today, it paints a whole different picture. Is it time that those running the game took their heads out of the sand?
Renewed Competition…
Taking our eyes off matters in Germany for a second, we have to look at what is happening in the other leagues in Europe. The English Premier League is undoubtedly the most popular league in the world. If you travel to any part of the globe, that is the league that people are huddled around their TV screens watching—and those are the replica tops that the younger fans are wearing. Turn on any TV station in the world, walk into any bar or restaurant, or log on to any sports forum, and people are most likely to be talking about the Liverpool, Man City and Manchester United games for the coming weekends, as compared to other teams. It is easy to dismiss this, but in the cold light of day, it is that public awareness and attention that drives the overriding factor in today’s game—money.
The amount that Germany’s top tier spent this summer pales when compared to the other major leagues in Europe and is akin to the second tier in England. Italy’s Serie A has overtaken the Bundesliga in terms of both its ability to attract the world’s best players and to compete at the highest levels in European club competition. Since the 2013 final, no German club has reached the final of the UEFA Champions League. Looking at the UEFA Europa League, which is often the best indicator of the depth of quality of a nation’s top tier, no German club has won that for over two decades; and they have only had two teams in the final this century—the last being Werder Bremen in 2009. Spain have won all five of the last Champions Leagues and four of the last five Europa Leagues.
…and The Lack of it
The point margins Bayern have enjoyed over the second-place teams for the most recent seasons have been 21, 15, 10, 10, 19 and 25. No matter which way you try and disguise it, that does not represent healthy competition. It is little wonder why, outside the German borders, the appetite for the league just is not there. In all of the leagues in the world that are dominated by one team, there is a distinct lack of success by that team outside their league. Even PSG, who will once again walk through their domestic league, will likely struggle when it comes to the cut and thrust of the latter stages of the Champions League. This is because their ranks of world superstars are simply not battle-hardened in the rigours of top-class football, where the defence is tested and opposition defences don’t simply wave their strikers through on goal.
The Dilemma
The problem for the DFB, and indeed for fans of German football, is whether they really want change—a change that will more than likely involve the tearing up (or at least the moving away from) policies that they have been so rightly proud of. When it appeared that they could have their cake and eat it, everyone was happy. Now that it looks like it is one or the other, it is a different story, and people will inevitably be split. Even without success at the club level, people could perhaps be forgiven for thinking that everything was okay, due to what was happening on the world stage. I am not going to go back over what happened in Russia over the summer, but if that is the shape of things to come, German football fans are likely to be a lot less patient and a lot more critical of what is going on at a domestic level.
Football is rife with knee-jerk reactions, and we have to make sure that we are not accused of any such thing. Looking at the situation, however, this does not look like a one-off, but rather a culmination of a long process that has been going on for years. Something needs to be done. It just comes down to whether there is the appetite to throw out what is very good in the game in an attempt to correct what is not so good. Interesting times are ahead.
