A title in your own hands
So FC Bayern in Cologne at least becomes world champion
05/25/2023 11:39 am
FC Bayern Munich is threatened with the first untitled season in ages: On the 34th matchday, the record champions don’t have it in their own hands to become German champions after all. However, a win of their own would make the battered club world champions.
FC Bayern Munich is threatened with the negative climax of a bad second half of the season next Saturday: If leaders Borussia Dortmund win their home game against FSV Mainz 05, the German champions will not come from Munich for the first time in eleven years. It would be the first season without a title for the record champions since 2012. The German championship in 2023, the eleventh in a row, is no longer in the hands of the club, which has been used to success but was shaken up by various sporting and communication disasters in 2023. But unofficial club world champions, they can become that. They won’t give it a place on the letterhead or the town hall balcony, but FC Bayern would at least get the attention and recognition of a large community of fans of the competition.
In 2004, a couple of statistics lovers transferred the old boxing principle to football. There is only one title and it is defended in every game. The unofficial Club World Cup is followed by a handful of nerds from England and Germany. Beginning with the first goal scored in an FA Cup match between Upton Park and Clapham Rovers on November 11, 1871, the World Cup has been at stake week after week ever since. In the meantime, 5257 “title matches” have been played, with the 5258th duel for the title ending the FC Bayern Munich season on Saturday.
Clapham Rovers, the first champions, were followed by Wanderers. The title later migrated from England to the German regional league (to Mainz-Mombach), later back to England. In 2020, FC Bayern took the title in the Champions League final in Paris Saint-Germain, Bayer Leverkusen later lost it in the Europa League to Ferencvaros Budapest and brought it back to the Bundesliga from Hungary in March. Apparently, Budapest was not particularly unhappy about this. “We know the unofficial title,” the club said at the time when asked by ntv.de. “But we consider it a dubious statistic and don’t want to deal with it.” Even in Leverkusen, which was by no means spoiled by the title, there were no celebrations.
A bankruptcy in the small Rhenish derby means that the Werkself have lost the title anyway: 1. FC Köln have been the unofficial club world champions since May 5, 2023. Steffen Baumgart’s team has defended the title twice since then. If this succeeds a third time, FC Bayern will not only miss the German championship in 2023, but will not even become the unofficial club world champion. How bitter.