Oliver Kahn’s time as Bayern Munich CEO is not remembered fondly by many fans of the Bavarian powerhouse. His oversight saw Julian Nagelsmann’s sacking at an inopportune time to bring in the much-maligned Thomas Tuchel, a move that was seen as bizarre by most involved in the footballing world.
This is also a time in the club’s history that saw a lot of transfers that, in hindsight, didn’t work out for the club, and the introduction of a wage structure that grossly overpaid players who weren’t/aren’t deserving of the contacts given to them. This coincided with a dip in quality in terms of the team’s performances, and while not wholly Kahn’s fault, eventually resulted in his sacking at the end of the 2022/23 season. Bayern may have managed to win the league in 2023, but it was in unconvincing fashion as the team relied on Borussia Dortmund slipping up on the last day of the season to do so. The poor planning under Kahn contributed to Bayern giving up their Bundesliga crown to Bayer Leverkusen only a year later.
While Kahn never intended on upsetting Bayern’s Bundesliga dominance, he admitted in a recent interview with Sports Illustrated Germany (captured via @iMiaSanMia) that, “The competition [within the Bundesliga] must not become predictable. If the competition is dominated by a few clubs over a long period of time, then success becomes inflationary and thus devalued.” Continuing, he questioned, “How honest is a competition in a league when there’s a difference of tens of millions in squad budgets between the teams and surprises are becoming increasingly rare? If someone is going to spend a lot of money on the rights to a league, then this competition needs stars, spectacle – and above all, it should be exciting right up to the end. That’s what makes sports at its core. When I was in charge at FC Bayern, I was of course aware of that, and I still wanted and had to win the title. But if a club wins the title for the tenth or eleventh time in a row, then that’s an incredible achievement, but the competition is still reduced to absurdity. In the long run, that damages the whole league, but you can’t blame FC Bayern for that.”
While Kahn’s points might be tough to hear from the perspective of a Bayern fan, he’s absolutely right. Fans of other leagues have often poked fun at the Bundesliga due to the lack of competition, labeling it a “farmer’s league” (a term that many use to incorrectly describe a league where one team dominates the competition, even if the team in question isn’t really farming talents from the rest of the league to an excessive degree, which describes the scenario that the term was born from). Competition leads to excitement, and if there isn’t competition for the title, what’s the point?
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