The Bundesliga patient is ailing: In a week in which Borussia Dortmund reached the final of the Champions League and Bayer Leverkusen reached the final of the Europa League, this claim may sound like a trip into the past. Nobody should be fooled by the rush of the moment. Because there is a difference between the success of German football (outstanding!) and the effect it has on the Bundesliga (threatening!).
The finding there is: The national competition no longer works, even if Bayern Munich did not become German champions for the first time since the summer of 2012. Because the top five in the league are far ahead of the other clubs. And what has been observed for years is likely to become even more pronounced in the future. The millions of euros that are distributed in international competitions cannot be compensated for in the medium term even by the best ideas.
Nationally, the Super League has long been a reality. Before matchday 33, the first five teams in the Bundesliga had already won a total of 343 points. That is already more than at the end of each of the past three seasons – 2022/23 (329), 2021/22 (325), 2020/21 (328).
The Bundesliga has degenerated into a three-tier society
In addition to Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich, VfB Stuttgart, who will face FC Augsburg in the Bundesliga this Friday (8:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on DAZN), RB Leipzig and Borussia Dortmund, only Eintracht Frankfurt is in sixth place positive goal difference. All other teams conceded more goals than they scored, lost more often than won – and yet SV Werder Bremen, currently eleventh in the table with ten wins and 14 defeats and 43:53 goals, can still hope for that in the coming season to play in European competition.
With only eleven wins, Frankfurt is even speculating on the Champions League if Dortmund win the final at Wembley. This shouldn’t be a reason to be happy for anyone outside of Bremen and Frankfurt.
This text comes from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
The Bundesliga has degenerated into a three-tier society. At the top the elite, supported by successes or major sponsors, behind them the middle class – too good to fight against relegation, too bad to be anything more than average – and behind them all those for whom existence is at stake. The fact that 1. FC Köln is still dreaming of relegation with 24 points is not a sign of tension, but rather of a lack of quality in the league.
Anyone who wants to see high-class football will see it somewhere else, as this week clearly demonstrated – and thus provided an argument for all those who see the future of football in a European Super League.
