FC Bayern Munich is facing the greatest challenge in its Bundesliga history. Never before has there been such a dramatic situation in the club’s history. The next few days and weeks will have a lasting impact on the near future of the record champions.
There has never been a situation like this at FC Bayern Munich in its almost sixty-year history in the Bundesliga! Because for the very first time, all levels are on fire at the same time. There have always been phases in the past when things didn’t go well on the pitch and within the team or there were difficulties at management level – but the fact that so many problems exist in both areas at once is an absolute novelty for the record champions.
When they got promoted to the top flight in 1965, they already had a team of the future on the green pitch. And in fact, the core of this troupe was to be preserved almost until 1979. After the record years leading up to the 1974 World Cup, there had been a slow phasing out of success at national level, but the team even managed to win the European Cup three times in a row until May 1976.
Uli Hoeneß rearranged the club
After that, financial inconsistencies and differences within the team increasingly determined the image of Bayern in public and things didn’t go as smoothly as in the years before. But before the financial situation of Bayern could escalate completely after the departure of Gerd Müller and Sepp Maier, the man who was to shape the greatest era of FC Bayern Munich for forty years came to the fore in 1979: Uli Hoeneß.
It wasn’t until around 1991 that the first new problems arose. Bayern had won the German championship five times since 1985 and were obviously fed up with their own success. There was nothing other than herself at that time. Another champion was also unthinkable (Uli Hoeneß: “Anyone who has any idea knows that Kaiserslautern will not become German champion”). When the Red Devils finally brought the title to Kaiserslautern at the end of the 1990/91 season, a world collapsed in Munich.
At that time, it was no longer true at the management level. The internal relationship between President Scherer and manager Hoeneß created problems that shook the club properly. The solution: The Bavarians put the two vice-presidents Franz Beckenbauer and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge at the side of Uli Hoeneß. And indeed – with a certain start – this idea worked. Ultimately even until almost two years ago, when Karl-Heinz Rummenigge also gave up his position as CEO.
Since the mid-1990s, all the problems have actually only existed on the green pitch and because of the composition of the team or because of (chosing) the wrong coach. But since consistency was always maintained at the management level, it was also possible to quickly correct short-term misappointments, for example in the case of the sports director (Christian Nerlinger). And even the sporting upheavals, where a lot of money was spent, like in 2007, when Luca Toni and Franck Ribery, among others, were signed, always happened almost silently, because there was still a constant corset on the pitch that FC Bavaria and its Mia-san-mia feeling had internalized and lived.
And so the last major crisis surrounding BVB’s double championship in 2011 and 2012 seems almost ridiculous in retrospect. Matthias Sammer came on for Christian Nerlinger, but the consistency paid off on the pitch and on the sidelines with minor changes (Dante and Javi Martinez, among others, had arrived in summer 2012). Because the scaffolding around Neuer, Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Robben and Ribéry was in place, had proven itself and ultimately delivered the right results again.
Reboot into the unknown
Now, eleven years later, FC Bayern is faced with a very special challenge as it restarts into the unknown. In the coming days and weeks of great, unprecedented upheaval, almost nothing will be the same as it once was. The foundation of the record champion must be poured again. But first we should stop and talk about the past. Because when you look back, you will also have to discuss past mistakes (e.g. not having advertised Max Eberl enough and forcefully).
- Ben Redelings is a best-selling author and comedian from the Ruhr area.
His current book “60 Years Bundesliga. The Anniversary Album” is a modern classic from the publishing house “The workshop”
He travels throughout Germany with his football programs. Info & dates www.scudetto.de.
The criticism that has often been voiced that the atmosphere in the club has changed should also be taken seriously at FC Bayern. Because when both an FCB original like Hermann Gerland and a man who is always close to the club, like Lothar Matthäus, complain that the famous Mia-san-mia feeling can no longer be felt, then all the alarm bells should ring at the same time ring.
Even if neither the fans nor the management of FC Bayern Munich have read or heard it in the past few months: The club is – to put it a little exaggeratedly – on the way to becoming a completely “normal” club. The next hours, days and weeks will decide in which direction this path will lead in the near future. Only one thing is certain: it is a huge challenge for everyone involved – because there has never been a situation like this at FC Bayern in its entire Bundesliga time in this form!