It only took twelve and a half months to turn Bundesliga club Arminia Bielefeld into a third division team. A butterfly turns back into a caterpillar. On Monday evening, this East Westphalian football nightmare became reality with the second relegation within a year. After the 4-0 embarrassment in the first leg, the fighting but ineffective Bielefeld team also lost the second leg of the relegation 2-1 against SV Wehen Wiesbaden, who are now allowed to play in the second division.
“Transformers” lit up again and again on Monday evening on the alternating LED boards at the Bielefeld football stadium. Advertisement for a new movie about robots that can transform into cars. Arminia is also a kind of transformer: sometimes first, sometimes second, sometimes third division. This club has switched leagues seven times in the past 15 years and 23 times since the Bundesliga was introduced 60 years ago.
Again and again, it resounds from the loudspeakers on the East Westphalian football hype. The trick is to always make a fresh start in the traditionally poorly paid third division. This is also the biggest challenge this time, or as Arminia’s managing director Christoph Wortmann puts it: “A Herculean task!”
Hercules was not there at the Varus Battle more than 2000 years ago in the Teutoburg Forest just outside Bielefeld. Hermann, the Cherusker, was the name of the Germanic hero, also called: Arminius. Arminia, founded in 1905, dedicated its name to him. Arminius could have had a face like the mask man Fabian Klos, who only plays with a black carbon mask after two major facial injuries.
Arminias Käpt’n Klos, who brusquely denied his team character and cohesion after the 4-0 loss in the first leg, scored Bielefeld’s 1-0 lead after four minutes in the second leg. The stadium shook. The Transformers resisted their next transformation. But Wehen Wiesbaden proved to be too clever and better at football. Born in Starnberg and former 1860 and FC Bayern junior Benedict Hollerbach, 22, turned the game around with two goals in the first half.
This time the Bielefeld fans didn’t have a pyro protest
The result of 1:2 remained valid until the end. About 600 Wiesbaden fans sang and jumped. About 23,000 Bielefeld spectators were shocked. There were no pyrotechnical escalations like in the first leg. Bielefeld seemed exhausted. “I can’t even cry anymore,” said Klos at the end, depressed. “A fresh start on all levels” was written on a banner in the Arminia fan block towards the end of the game.
The fans could have saved themselves this appeal, because if you’re relegated to the third division, you start from scratch anyway. Speaking of saving: after 35 million euros in television money in the first division and 19 million euros in the second, Arminia will get 1.3 million euros in the third division. As a result, she will have to put together a completely new squad there.
Michael Mutzel, formerly Hamburger SV, is coming as the new sporting director, Uwe Koschinat could stay as a coach, and Klos could lead the way as captain with the new start. All of this is the content of forthcoming discussions. The contracts of almost all players are not valid for the third division. The season starts in two months on the first weekend of August. It’s going to be a hot summer for Arminia Bielefeld.
