The relegation itself is once again very popular, at least if you take the number of viewers as a benchmark. At the state league FC Fuchsstadt, for example, 1500 spectators came to see the 0:7 against SpVgg Bayern Hof, as many to see the Bavarian league DJKido Givebach against SpVgg Ansbach (1:4). It’s vacation time, the weather is good. And the fact that the Bavarian Football Association (BFV) is now insisting that no more glass bottles can be seen around the pitch, even in the lower classes, doesn’t seem to have deterred as many people as some critics would have liked.
However, relegation is not nearly as popular with some players and clubs as it is with the public. In many leagues, the playoffs drag on for so long that the summer break can no longer be described as such. In most leagues, the new season starts in mid-July, which often means that preparation begins in mid-June. So some amateur kickers have less soccer free than the professionals.
Those games that are best described as “suspect games” are viewed particularly critically. An extreme case is certainly the relegation to the Bavarian Regionalliga. There, the regional league SpVgg Ansbach and the second in the Bayernliga Süd, FC Memmingen, qualified for the second round of relegation. While Ansbach didn’t have any trouble with Lassenbach, the Memmingers managed a surprise after a 0-1 home defeat in the first leg against VfB Eichstätt, they won 4-1 away on Friday evening. For Eichstätt, membership in the fourth division ends after six years.
The first game of the second relegation round is scheduled for Tuesday. But nobody knows whether the result will be relevant at all. This in turn is due to the fact that the champions of the Regionalliga Bayern do not yet know whether they will be promoted. SpVgg Unterhaching meets Energie Cottbus, the decision has been postponed by more than a week. Because Cottbus competed in the Brandenburg state cup final on Saturday (and won 4-1 against FSV Luckenwalde).
In Memmingen they have absolutely no problem with the upcoming games being potentially useless
At least in Memmingen they have absolutely no problem with the upcoming games being potentially useless. First of all, because of the popularity of the relegation itself: the arena on Bodenseestraße in Memmingen will probably be well filled again – and with it the cash register. “There wasn’t a minute of speculation,” says President Armin Buchmann. Before the first round of relegation to the regional league, the four teams involved were asked if they wanted to play the second round on suspicion, and they agreed. It feels like “absolutely two finals,” says Buchmann. On the contrary, it would have been “madness” to wait until June 11th, when Unterhaching hosts the Cottbusser team for the second leg. In Memmingen, the pre-season is already in place: “We have a pre-season game against 1860 on July 7th,” Buchmann points out, a kind of pre-season highlight.
Conversely, the match director of a district league in Lower Bavaria has written mandatory suspect games in the calendar for the clubs. They were anything but amused. The captain of TSV Abensberg is quoted in the amateur football portal Fupa: As a player, he would have liked to have been asked in advance what he thought of it. Abensberg would have liked to wait for the decisions in the state league relegation after a 1:3 away game before having to play again. The BFV says that there is very little that can be done about this misery. Of course there are always critics. But obviously there are enough supporters.
Incidentally, 1492 spectators came to FC Walkertshofen, who defeated Abensberger 3-1 last Thursday.
