League crack down on lewd shirt numbers to concentrate on 50+1
Bundesliga results went Bayern Munich's way as numerical controversies dominated the headlines
At 21 minutes past five on Saturday evening, everybody knew it would be Bayern's weekend. Hoffenheim's Brazilian striker Wellington had just equalised against Gladbach in the dying seconds of their match. He scored from an offside position but it didn't really matter that much – everything had gone right for the Champions before, so that tiny piece of misfortune hardly rankled.
First, Hertha, the most improbable high-flyers since the Hindenburg, were held to a 1-1 draw away to Bielefeld on Friday night. Then, a determined Stuttgart side led by Thomas Hitzlsperger and the irrepressible Mario Gomez brutally tore through Bayer Leverkusen's beautifully crafted new facade to expose the old fragility at their core. Bruno Labbadia's men went down 4-2 in Düsseldorf, their temporary home while the BayArena is being renovated.
And it got better still. Hamburg somehow managed to lose 3-2 away to the bottom-of-the-table scrappers Karlsruhe after holding a 2-0 lead. The Hamburg manager, Martin Jol, took a leaf out of his successor at Tottenham's book: he blamed a player. New recruit Michael Gravgaard, a centre-back from FC Copenhagen, had made the type of errors you only ever see in "youth football", Jol said sarcastically. Süddeutsche Zeitung thought the 30-year-old's Bundesliga debut was even on a par with Jean-Marie Pfaff's first disastrous outing for Bayern against Bremen in 1982. The Belgian goalkeeper famously managed to punch a Uwe Reinders throw-in into his own net.
So by the time the perennial champions kicked off against a depleted Dortmund side on Sunday, the stage was set for a restorative move up the table. Despite the worst efforts from Martin Demichelis, whose slip allowed Nelson Valdez to score after 77 seconds, and Miroslav Klose in front of Roman Weidenfeller's goal, Bayern still triumphed 3-1.. "We had 100,000 opportunities," said a relieved Uli Hoeneß after Klose had redeemed himself with two late goals. "If you divide our chances by those Dortmund created, you'd have a great result." Better not try this formula in maths class, kids.
There was a healthy dose of controversy as well when Kevin-Prince Boateng appeared to stamp on Klose's thigh in a suspiciously "accidental" manner. "Schweinerei" (disgrace), exclaimed the former Germany captain, Franz Beckenbauer, working as a television pundit. But Jürgen Klopp didn't agree: "It was never violent conduct," said the Dortmund coach. "I find it incredible that anyone could make these allegations. Maybe it's simply because he looks a little wilder". And still decidedly mediocre, by the way.
Bild all but ignored the Boateng brouhaha, however, as the daily was enraptured by the real story of the week: the Bundesliga's decision to bar the Karlsruhe defender Dino Drpic from wearing the No69 shirt. "We've asked the clubs to choose low numbers in order to keep things clear and lucid," explained a league official, Holger Hieronymous. Bild, though, is convinced there's rather more to it. Germany's most wholesome tabloid admonished the officials for their "prudish" stance and helpfully explained that "69 is a love-position where man and woman lie on top of each other and…" (You get the rest. But after finishing this column, please).
It's probably best to clamp down on Drpic and his rotten mind early doors, because it could all get out of hand. In their native Croatia, Drpic and his model-wife, Nives Celsius, are best known for a secret late-night tryst in Dinamo Zagreb's Maksimir stadium: the couple decided to, ahem, consummate their marriage in the centre-circle, with all the floodlights on. When Celsius admitted this indiscretion in a book, Dinamo fired the defender, paving the way for the move to Germany.
While Bild was revelling in 69-gate, the broadsheets were busy discussing the real story of the week: "50 + 1". These numbers are shorthand for the league's ownership regulations. In Germany, the majority of a club's shares (50% plus a share) must always lie with the club itself, in other words, with its members. The 50 +1 rule was only re-affirmed in November yet a number of clubs are eager for it to be relaxed. Hannover's president, Martin Kind, for example, has worked out a compromise model. He would allow full ownership to pass to an investor, provided a number of criteria are met. Sugar daddies would have to commit to a long-term investment, allow the clubs the right to reclaim their shares in case of insolvency and face tough restrictions on dividends.
Eintracht Frankfurt and Hertha have similar ideas but they're being resisted by the bigger clubs. "The traditional teams are only too happy to preserve the status quo," said Kind.
One reason the debate has become so acute is the success of TSG Hoffenheim. They are being bank-rolled by the wealthy benefactor, Dietmar Hopp, to the tune of €175m, but he neither owns nor legally controls the club. "We have to look very carefully whether this type of engagement doesn't undermine the 50 + 1 rule," said the Borussia Dortmund chief executive, Hans-Joachim Watzke, on Sunday.
There is also a sense that the league's regulations are open to a legal challenge and ultimately indefensible. After all, the Bundesliga has already made exceptions for Leverkusen and Wolfsburg, who are both owned and financially supported by Bayer and Volkswagen, respectively. "There can never be a totally level playing field," said the Wolfburg manager Felix Magath.
The Schalke CEO, Peter Peters, warned against going down the Premier League-route, however. "We would open Pandora's box and start a rat race," he said in Stern. "The total capitalisation of the game would take us to the edge of the sport's credibility and in the end clubs like Hanover would be exactly where they started off."
Professor Tobias Kollmann from the University of Duisburg-Essen has also put forward his own compromise paper. "We need to find a way that enables economic partners to take a club to a new sporting and financial level", he told zeit online, "a quick in-and-out scenario has to be avoided at all cost". Dino and Nives would probably beg to differ.
Results: Bielefeld 1–1 Hertha, Schalke 1-0 Bremen, Karlsruhe 3–2 Hamburg, Wolfsburg 2–0 Bochum, Frankfurt 2–2 Cologne, Gladbach 1–1 Hoffenheim, Leverkusen 2–4 Stuttgart, Energie Cottbus 3-1 Hanover, Bayern 3–1 Dortmund.
- Raphael Honigstein -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/feb/10/raphael-onigstein-bundesliga-blog-bayern-munich
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And Ze Roberto is the best example.
