a few thoughts on the Bundesliga...

Bremen, Bayern, Klose, Alkmaar's tactics...


http://www.direkter-freistoss.de/2007/04/16/seltsame-mischung-aus-positivismus-und-fusballpatriotismus/

( in German)

Very interesting article. Thanks for posting, Otto.

Detlev Claussen talks a great deal of sense; always worth reading

I wonder whether he is on to something when he suggests "Bayern in the UEFA Cup" could actually allow them to restructure their team

my first instinct would be to say that Bayern HAVE to be in the CL, they are our flagship club after all and have many German internationals who should play at the highest level

Bayern in the UEFA Cup has advantages as well though

it would teach Hoeness and Co humility; allow the club to focus on tactics/the rebuilding of their team without CL pressure; it would imbue the UEFA Cup with more prestige in the Bundesliga (Bayern would have to win it to avoid total embarrassment); the young STuttgart talents like Gomez would taste life in the fast lane and progress even quicker....

but really, the preeminence of Bayern, their total domination in the public perception would be finished at least partially

German football could become more democratic and less Bavarian

would do you think ?

Otto der Schweinehund wrote:Detlev Claussen talks a great deal of sense; always worth reading

I wonder whether he is on to something when he suggests "Bayern in the UEFA Cup" could actually allow them to restructure their team

my first instinct would be to say that Bayern HAVE to be in the CL, they are our flagship club after all and have many German internationals who should play at the highest level

Bayern in the UEFA Cup has advantages as well though

it would teach Hoeness and Co humility; allow the club to focus on tactics/the rebuilding of their team without CL pressure; it would imbue the UEFA Cup with more prestige in the Bundesliga (Bayern would have to win it to avoid total embarrassment); the young STuttgart talents like Gomez would taste life in the fast lane and progress even quicker....

but really, the preeminence of Bayern, their total domination in the public perception would be finished at least partially

German football could become more democratic and less Bavarian

would do you think ?

I personally don´t care that much if Bayern will be in the CL next year or not. From a German point we would have less German internationals in the CL then on the one side, but on the other side Bayern would be among the favourites and earn a lot of important points for the UEFA Ranking.

From a Bayern point of view it´s surely a big blow, financially and also for their image; signing good players for the next season will be even more difficult. Apart from that playing UEFA Cup compared to the CL is surely somewhat ungrateful: You have to play against a lot of no name teams somewhere in the middle of nowhere, which are nonetheless often pretty strong; hardly any glory and fame, but much more opportunity to blunder or to suffer injuries. Maybe it´s even harder to be successful in the Bundesliga when you play UEFA Cup instead of CL. Financially you hardly earn any money before the semis.

For building up a new team it might have some advantages, but I doubt this advantge would be anywhere big enough to be a compensation for a club like Bayern. However, what gets on my nerves is when Bayern players and board talk about the UEFA Cup as if were some useless Cup for losers nowhere good enough for Bayern and their brilliant football wizards. So playing one season in the UEFA Cup might teach them some humility again.

With regard to the Bundesliga I don´t think one year UEFA Cup will change anything on Bayern´s dominance here in the long run.

It's a great article indeed. Not only does he talk much sense, the analytical character of his articles is quite unique when it comes to the German sport press, he often focuses on aspects others don't (or can't) even see. (In-)Direkter Freistoss and 11 Freunde are great, wish the mainstream would learn a thing or two from them.