WORLDSPORTS
APRIL 2014
GROWING DOMINANCE
Bayern run away with the German
title for the second year in a row
W
hen Borussia Dortmund
became the fifth different team
to win the Bundesliga in eight
seasons back in 2011, the league was
widely proclaimed as the most open and
competitive in Europe.
Three years on, many German fans
are stifling the yawns as Bayern Munich
run away with the title for the second
year in a row with the other 17 teams
floundering in their wake.
Last year, the Bavarians clinched the
championship with a record six games to
spare as part of an unprecedented treble
which also included the German Cup and
Champions League.
This time, they are threatening to improve on even that performance. Bayern
have dropped only four points all season,
have won their last 14 league games and
have a 19-point lead.
Even more worryingly for the other
teams, Bayern are set to get stronger
at the expense of bitter rivals Borussia
Dortmund.
In less than a year, Bayern have lured
Dortmund’s prize assets Mario Goetze
and Robert Lewandowski, with the Poland striker joining from next season, to
Munich, leaving their rivals demoralised
and disorientated.
“They want to destroy us,” Dortmund
chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke
said in January.
Everything has been achieved without the help of tax breaks from a friendly
government or huge cash injections from
an ambitious owner.
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t h e g a m e sports magazine
GERMAN
LEAGUE
‘BORING’
Over the years, Bayern have been a model of good management and UEFA’s financial fair play policy, which is being introduced to force clubs to live within their means,
looks set to make them stronger rather than weaker.
“The current situation does not do the Bundesliga any good,” Watzke said the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
“In Germany, no club has managed to build a similar platform to Bayern Munich in
the last 30 or 40 years.
“What Bayern have done is definitely not reprehensible,” he added. “It’s just what
every business in Germany tries to do to their rivals.