Arminia Bielefeld: The most extraordinary achievement of the season

Stand: 4:05 p.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes

Dthe sentence sounded flippant, but not lacking a true essence. Fabian Klos was asked whether the team bus on the way from Paderborn Airport to Bielefeld would not have had to stop several times to buy beer, when it was switched live to “Current Sports Studio”. No, replied the captain of Arminia Bielefeld: “We don’t work with amateurs here, but with professionals.” Of course there was enough beer on board – even for a hard-drinking veteran like the 33-year-old Klos.

However, this was to be assumed – because without an extremely high level of professionalism, staying in the class would hardly have been possible. The fact that the rubber dinghy Arminia, as Sport Managing Director Samir Arabi put it, outperformed three ships with significantly more motorized engines – Cologne, Bremen and Schalker – is remarkable.

The success of Arminia Bielefeld is an example of what is still possible in paid football despite all the economic centrifugal forces that have an ever increasing effect on it and despite a very manageable budget. It is an expression of long-term planning and a concept that is perfectly tailored to the circumstances of the association. This was carried out under pressure and not fundamentally changed even in times of crisis. This was the key difference to the competition. This was the only way to reach the finish line despite a mini budget of just 22 million euros.

Paradigm shift is Bielefeld’s key to success

This was possible because the association only became competitive again a few years ago thanks to extensive debt restructuring thanks to active support from the regional economy (“Bündnis Ostwestfalen”). There was a paradigm shift: Out of the hamster wheel and the hunt for short-term success – towards sustainable development. Arminia has been working for years to develop into a training association. Young talents are to be formed in order to create new income opportunities in the long term. That is why we invested more in infrastructure and training than in the team.

The temptation to supposedly increase the chances of staying in the class by buying expensive players was also resisted. There was no panic buying, no rush hour on the transfer market. The big picture was never questioned. In contrast to the yachts Schalke and Werder, which capsized, the Arminia rubber dinghy stayed on course. There was silence on board.

also read

The only thing that apparently contradicted this thesis was a controversial change of coach. There was massive incomprehension when Arminia separated from Uwe Neuhaus on December 10th. Not only the fans went on the barricades. It really had to be doubted that the chances of staying in class with the experienced Neuhaus would have been worse than with his successor Frank Kramer. Arminia would probably have held the class with Neuhaus.

The fact that they split up says a lot about the new Arminia. The reason was divergent considerations between the coach and the club about the long-term future. Neuhaus thought pragmatically in short stages – Kramer, on the other hand, thinks in scenarios similar to Arabi and CFO Markus Rejek. Kramer wants to rejuvenate the team and thus create new values ​​from which Arminia will benefit – regardless of which league it plays in. It takes inner strength to make an extremely unpopular decision like this.

It sounds adventurous, but despite everything, Arminia Bielefeld has still not quite achieved all of the goals for the season: East Westphalia do not want to build up any new debts by June 30 – despite the losses due to the pandemic.

If this were to succeed – and the chances are not bad – it would be an even greater achievement than staying in class. It would almost be a unique selling point for football in times of Corona.

also read