Frankfurt / Main (dpa) – Donata Hopfen had been the managing director of the German Football League for less than two months, when she had already upset the eloquent Bayern defender Uli Hoeneß.
With her cheeky statements (“If the play-off helps us, then we will talk about the play-off”), the strong young woman in the Bundesliga not only angered many football fans and traditionalists, but also especially Hoeneß, who had helped build the current Munich national team. dominance for decades.
Therefore, Hoeneß was poisoned: “The new managing director of the DFL is now thinking day and night about how we can break the dominance of FC Bayern. “And now they have come up with this idea.” He spoke in his typical purity of “joke idea.” It is not about more excitement and attractiveness, but about “a law against Bayern Munich”. For several months, this discussion has been more current than ever, related to the question: How can this Bundesliga become exciting again?
The end of the series does not appear
Bayern is the champion ten times in a row, an unprecedented series in the major European leagues. But that’s not all: The team, led by still mentally ill Manuel Neuer and Thomas Müller, not only wins bowl by bowl, but also does so in an impressive way year after year. Eight titles were brought in with a double-digit lead, and so it seems again this season. Only in 2018/19 there was a close duel with Borussia Dortmund. In short: the series does not seem to end.
Football expert Matthias Sammer, who was Bayern Munich sporting director from 2012 to 2016, sees the financial and personal superiority as well as the FC Bayern mentality as a big plus. “If there is a failure, everything is questioned. Other clubs have a different mentality. “There you enjoy smaller successes, failures are hidden”, Sammer told “Sport Bild” and gave as an example the disappointing end in the first class against FC Villarreal.
“In Bayern there is only: victory or misfortune! “It affects the mind, the soul and the mentality of every player,” Sammer explained. Said Sammer, who, along with then-coach Pep Guardiola, had a massive impact in the early stages of this dominant decade.
The next generation is ready
This spring, there seemed to be something like a glimmer of hope. National team player Niklas Süle transferred from Munich to Dortmund on a free transfer, otherwise perfect Bayern suddenly lost to Bochum or failed in the cup, the champions subscription circle around Neuer (36), Müller (32) and world footballer Robert Lewandowski (33) is not becoming younger or currently only has contracts until the summer of 2023.
But does this really give hope? With the 1995 vintage around national players Joshua Kimmich, Serge Gnabry and Leon Goretzka, the next generation is now ready. And when Bundesliga stars like Dortmund’s Erling Haaland or Leipzig’s Christopher Nkunku are traded in the transfer market, the Bayern name quickly emerges as a matter of course. On the other hand, it can certainly be ruled out that a Gnabry will move to Leipzig or a Müller to Dortmund. The extraordinary change of parties from Süle may have already marked the summit in this regard.
Playoff idea against Tradition
BVB chief Hans-Joachim Watzke is not too optimistic that the current situation could change quickly. “No one denies that the missing master race is essentially a problem,” Watzke told Zeit online. What can be done about domination? “To be honest, only bad socialist or extreme capitalist instruments can help,” said the desperate Borussia Dortmund boss.
The idea of the playoffs is definitely appealing in terms of excitement and variety, but a look back at the final years of the DFB Cup is enough. There the Munich team won only five titles in ten seasons – and, for example, the losses against Frankfurt, near Gladbach or the second division Holstein Kiel. It remains to be seen if the league is ready to leave behind decades of tradition and overload the full calendar even more to generate more emotion in the last one-dimensional battle of the championship.