Within the last five
years Bayern Munich has been one of the most successful soccer clubs in Europe.
Besides winning multiple national titles, the club made it to the final of the
UEFA Champions League three times and won it in 2013, when they defeated German
rival Borussia Dortmund in Wembleye, London. Furthermore, rivals within the
German soccer league (Bundesliga) envy Bayern for their vast financial background,
a result of a year long savvy management, which includes finding lucrative investors in economic powerhouses like Audi or Adidas or the erection of the highly modern Allianz Arena in
the early Two-Thousands.
However, one aspect
Bayern Munich has often been criticized for are their questionable recruiting
strategies when signing players. Even though many of the club’s star players
come from their own youth academy, Bayern has the tendency to buy off the best
players from financially less empowered competitors, as happened in 2013 and
2014. After Borussia Dortmund had won national titles in 2011 and 2012, Bayern
targeted at two of the clubs most talented offensive players, Mario Götze and
Robert Lewandowski, who eventually turned in their yellow BVB jersey for a
Bavarian colored red and blue. Apparently this strategy has worked out for
Munich. Not only did the club win championships in both of the following two
years and is on the brink of adding a third consecutive one, but has also
succeeded in weakening their biggest rival Borussia Dortmund, who has struggled
to compete for a championship since their star players have turned sides. As a
reaction Dortmund chief executive Hans Joachim Watzke mentioned in an interview
that, “Bayern Munich want to destroy us” (Cryer, 2014, para. 1).
In sports leagues like
most European soccer leagues, where no financial restrictions such as a salary
cap space apply, it seems as if financially more well equipped teams will
always prevail. The questions remains, whether sport should be equated with
free enterprise and thus jeopardize athletic competition over economic factors,
or, whether, like in the US sport system, leagues should introduce regulations
(i.e. salary cap space, draft system, trades) that assure that teams’ success
can be accredited solely to their athletic efforts.
References:
Andreas,
ReplyDeleteThis example of Bayern Munich's practices seems eerily similar to how the New York Yankees operate. Fans of small market teams (like Cleveland) often feel like we are minor leagues for the Yankees. There are a few other teams that are able to keep up with the Yankees, but they tend to be in big media cities.
This is an interesting blog entry.
Dr. Spencer