Column – French fries instead of big city clubs: That is why traditional clubs are falling apart

Apart from Germany’s soccer metropolis Munich, the other megacities Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg have been chasing music for decades. Apparently, the bigger the city, the bigger the problems. The football column.

It has been 38 years since Thomas Schaaf and Friedhelm Funkel first met. The then 22-year-old full-back Schaaf beat Bayer Uerdingen with Werder Bremen with the seven-year-old midfielder Funkel 3-0.

The successful professional career was followed by an even more successful career as a coach for both of them from the 90s, but this seemed to be over by the beginning of last year at the latest, when Funkel “never” wanted to work as a coach after being kicked out of Fortuna Düsseldorf.

But the veteran had Horst Heldt change his mind a few weeks ago to take on the relegation candidate 1. FC Köln again as a fireman until the end of the season. Schaaf has even less time to rescue, after the dismissal of Florian Kohfeldt last Sunday, he may only have the last Bundesliga game on this Saturday to save Werder from falling into the second division.

“Because I am so connected to the club and have such a history. That’s why I accepted,” explained the previous technical director, who was Bremen’s head coach for 14 years and won a championship and three DFB trophies during this time.

Relegation battle: Bielefeld the laughing third?

Merits that will not help him on Saturday any more than Funkel does the fact that after Jupp Heynckes and Rehhagel he has played the third most Bundesliga games as a coach and player. It is even quite possible that Frank Kramer (49), who is a youngster by comparison, will be the laughing third with Arminia Bielefeld in the relegation three-way battle and at least one of the two legends has to stop as a failed.

In 1983, in the first duel between Schaaf and Funkel, Kramer was just eleven years old and the world was a different one, including in football. Cup winner was 1. FC Köln, champion and European Cup winner of the national champion was Hamburger SV. The billy goats have not won anything since then, but have been relegated six times. And HSV, which won the trophy again in 1987, but didn’t win anything after that, has been trying in vain and ever more desperately to return to the Bundesliga for three years.

In the meantime, even the malicious comments about the continued failure of the Hanseatic League can hardly be heard, the sad picture of the falling Bundesliga dinosaur almost only generates pity. In contrast, Hertha BSC has become the most popular target for scorn and ridicule in the past two years.

Hertha: 374 million, four coaches, two relegation battles

At that time, investor Lars Windhorst joined the capital city club and declared his commitment with enthusiasm for the “Big City Club”. Since then, 374 million from Windhorst’s Tennor Holding have been transferred to the clammy old lady, but Hertha wore out three coaches and played twice against relegation until shortly before the end of the season. It was only Pal Dardai who returned after Windhorst, who was also sorted out because of a supposedly too unattractive and contemporary game philosophy, that led the team to relegation.

“It is not meant to be evil, but this big city story back then – it remains a bit negative for us for a lifetime,” said the Hungarian, now noticeably annoyed. In the club, too, you roll your eyes at the big city word as well as with the classification of the “sleeping giant”, which ex-sports director Dieter Hoeneß once used to emphasize the huge potential of the club and the city. Although that’s not even wrong in principle.

“The fact is that the term ‘Big City Club’ describes that Hertha is the football club in Germany’s largest city,” said Windhorst, for example. The problem, however, is that size alone is not a criterion for success – and that is all the more true in German football.

Big cities = big problems

Therefore wrote the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Already in 2015 from the “agony of the Bundesliga dinosaurs”: “Too much vanity, too little competence. Too much persistence, too little renewal. The big clubs like Hamburger SV, Hannover 96, Hertha BSC Berlin or VfB Stuttgart cannot find any means more to stop their decline. “

This year, that does not apply to the Stuttgart, who played a strong season as promoted players – but also relegated again in 2019 after a good first season after being promoted again in the second year. It is particularly noticeable that clubs from the largest cities have had the greatest problems in the recent past.

Apart from the undisputed record champions FC Bayern from Germany’s football capital Munich – apart from Union Berlin – the clubs from the other three megacities of Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne are more second-class than first-class.

It doesn’t look much different when you look at the 15 largest German cities with at least 500,000 inhabitants: Bremen is threatened with relegation (No. 11), Fortuna Düsseldorf (7), Hannover 96 (13) and 1. FC Nürnberg (14) are Second division, Dynamo Dresden (12) and MSV Duisburg (15) currently third, RW Essen (10) even fourth division. “Tradition hinders,” commented the DOES the sad inventory on Friday.

Uli Hoeneß mourns the traditional clubs that have crashed

“It’s a drama. If we had these teams in the Bundesliga permanently, they would be even more popular and attractive,” said Uli Hoeneß two years ago. The blame for this, however, does not lie with the evil forces: “This is often a management problem.”

The economist Henning Zülch from the HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management put it even more drastically. “Sooner or later the traditional clubs get problems because they cannot cope with their structures. In some areas they are still run like chips stalls,” he said world.

Toxic mixture as a formula for the decline

In fact, most of the downfalls in traditional clubs, for which former champions such as 1860 Munich and 1. FC Kaiserslautern are exemplary, are due to a toxic mixture of mismanagement, fatal personal misjudgments, overconfidence and impatience. Too often the quick return to the top was tackled in vain with risky bets on a supposedly golden future, in the end there was and is in many cases sporting and economic decline.

In the big cities in particular, the traditional clubs are under the magnifying glass of the enthusiastic public and the numerous media, whose local tabloid media often not only fuel the unrest, but also try to massively influence club politics. “Where it gets complicated: when fans and the tabloids have a say and have a say in government, a classic feature of traditional companies,” commented the Southgerman newspaper.

Anyone who gets involved in this game has usually already lost – many of those responsible in the named locations can sing many a bitter song about that. Because a recurring characteristic of the many crashes are permanent changes in leadership in the board, management and in the coaching bench, but this scapegoat policy has almost never brought back success.

The secret of success for the “little ones”: calm and continuity

It is therefore hardly surprising that smaller clubs such as Mainz, Augsburg or Freiburg have been able to establish themselves in the Bundesliga. Less interest, but more peace and quiet for continuous work, even in times of crisis.

That was the mantra of Andreas Rettig as manager both in Freiburg and in Augsburg, that they wanted to be among the 20 best clubs in Germany – a pragmatic self-assessment that does not see relegation as the end of the world, but includes it as a realistic option in the planning. So the so-called “little ones” are doing very well: Freiburg has only not played in the Bundesliga in one year since 2010, the FCA has been a permanent guest since 2011 and Mainz even since 2009.

Second league becomes a reservoir for those who have failed

In the lower house, on the other hand, the former top clubs of bygone times will crowd in the future: Perhaps with Bremen and Cologne as well as from the third division 1860 and Rostock, certainly with Schalke, Dresden and HSV as well as the ex-first division clubs Düsseldorf, Nuremberg, Hanover, Karlsruhe, Darmstadt, St Pauli and Paderborn. “The league is becoming a reservoir for time-honored clubs that cannot cope with themselves,” wrote the SZ.

Therefore, the anticipation of some fans for this reunion of the old greats could quickly fizzle out, because in view of the oversupply of self-declared promotion candidates, there will logically be more losers than winners in the end.

Especially since there are supposedly “little ones” like Aue, Regensburg or Heidenheim in the second division, who have established themselves with serious work and who will not give up the points voluntarily out of respect for the faded splendor of the traditional clubs. On the contrary, as you can see from the words of Heidenheim’s sports director Holger Sanwald: “Every club that underestimates this league makes the first mistake.”

Bundesliga: Table before the 34th matchday

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