March 21 – The German Bundesliga is often portrayed as a model example of fair play when it comes to club ownership rules and affordable ticket prices. But according to the league’s own CEO, Christian Seifert, Bayern Munich’s domination threatens the Bundesliga’s reputation and their rivals must show more ambition in order to close the gap.
Bayern’s 1-0 win at Borussia Moenchengladbach on Sunday left the reigning German champions 13 points clear of second-placed RB Leipzig with nine games left and an almost certain fifth straight league title.
“It is clear, and you cannot blame Munich for this, but if FC Bayern are champions a few more times in a row that would not be very conducive to the perception of the competition abroad,” Seifert told Kicker magazine
“In England, at the start of the season five clubs set themselves the goal of winning the title. In Italy, it’s three. In Spain, it’s two. In Germany, none of the 17 clubs talk about giving chase (to Bayern) and that has to change at some point.”
Borussia Dortmund are the last team other than Bayern to win the league, back in 2012. Germany’s richest club with a 54-million-euro ($58m) profit in the 2015/16 season , Bayern are also in the Champions League quarter-finals and in the German Cup semi-finals.
Chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who also heads the European Club Association, warns the gap between rich and poor will only grow, however.
“The scissors cutting the gap between the rich and poor don’t work anymore,” he said. “One should not be so naive to believe that at some point you don’t need so much money in club football. You need it to buy players with the quality like we have in our squad.”
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