The good news first: The Toto Cup quarter-finals at FC Pipinsried this Saturday will take place (1.42 p.m., live on Bavarian television), they are sure of that in the Dachau hinterland. Of course it rained a lot, but my guess is: sixty is coming, then the lawn will be gone after that.
Türkgücü Munich also looked forward to a cup game on Friday, which was supposed to take place the next day against FC Ingolstadt, but office manager Oktay Kaya was still waiting for feedback from Rosenheim at midday. Munich’s home game was supposed to take place there, so it wouldn’t be their pitch that would be there afterwards.
Rosenheim was actually supposed to be the last stop on an odyssey that the Munich club could now get upset about – but it doesn’t. They had to get used to such wanderings too much. And this time it was particularly long: Because Türkgücü is only allowed to play twelve games per season in the Grünwalder Stadium, an additional home cup game does not fit into the calendar. The fact that the regional league game between the current third-placed team against fourth-placed TSV Aubstadt on Wednesday was canceled due to the pitch being unplayable is irrelevant, as it will be rescheduled at the same location.
The second home, at SV Heimstetten, was also canceled. “We made an agreement not to play there in winter,” explains Kaya. The club next asked SC Fürstenfeldbruck, where the city council received the request too quickly. Some local politicians are at loggerheads with the SC club management, which doesn’t simplify matters. According to reports, there were further cancellations from Garching and Ismaning; in Unterhaching, in principle, no other clubs are allowed to play home games. Even an exchange of home rights didn’t work; it was said that work was being done on the pitch in Ingolstadt. No clear lawn during an international break? It took a while until Türkgücü found what he was looking for at TSV 1860, so: at TSV 1860 Rosenheim.
At Giesing’s heights, Türkgücü’s rental agreement is limited to a dozen games per season, it is an emergency solution. When asked by SZ, the Munich sports office confirmed what is often rumored and yet many do not know: that a maximum of 50 games per season can be played in the Grünwalder Stadium for reasons of emissions protection. The league games of TSV 1860 Munich and the U23 of FC Bayern alone add up to 36. Plus twelve Türkgücü games, that makes 48. Two game buffers were built in in the event that, for example, the Sixties have to play DFB Cup games (which will be the case in 2024 if they win the Toto Cup this year).
Construction will soon begin on the Olympic Stadium and then on the Grünwalder
Türkgücü is therefore the tenant with the least influence, and as we can hear, the association does not have the standing with the city to obtain any special permits. Of course, Kaya thinks it would be great if his club had a single, permanent venue, but “the Grünwalder is such a highlight that we don’t want to miss it.” For the Sixties, outsourcing their own games is of course out of the question, the club pays by far the most rent, and the Lions will soon be undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation. And at FC Bayern they see it this way: they were already willing to compromise when the women’s team moved to their own campus stadium. The U23 should stay close to the club headquarters, and it would also be questionable whether the campus stadium would meet the requirements for regional league games.
The Bavarian Association Cup thus exposes a structural problem in Munich sports: there has always been a lack of another stadium for upscale amateur and professional football. This is said to have been a recurring topic in discussions between the city and clubs, with the city pointing out that one can never know which league which club will play in in the coming years. Spending money on suspicion is something no party wants to explain to the electorate.
However, the problem will worsen in the coming years. Because of the planned renovation, the Olympic Stadium will not be available for a long time, not even to the few who could afford the rent there. And if the Grünwalder Stadium becomes a construction site, possibly in 2027, it will not only be Türkgücü that will have to consider where it will play instead. The sixties even more so, especially if they had risen by then. In Munich there is no stadium suitable for the second division except the Allianz Arena, and that is taboo for other clubs.
Oktay Kaya then got the call from Rosenheim on Friday afternoon: The game was canceled due to the constant rain. So the odyssey continued. And then in the evening there was a rumor that the game would be played next Sunday without spectators in Ingolstadt. According to reports, the association wanted the game to be played as quickly as possible. Apparently that still needed to be made clear.
