Budesliga yet another flavour of the month

 Wilkommen! Guten Tag! Das, erm Spielsplaztenberger. Okay, my GCSE German needs some brushing up, but the Bundesliga is here! Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund are in the Champions League, and ze Germans are set to rule us all (in football terms). This is the age of the Mannschaft, all hail the mighty Farterland!!

Actually, let’s not. While the rest of the media loses their collective shit over the indomitable Germans, gushes over their ownership models and sycophantically applauds the young German talent coming through, how about we enjoy some perspective? Yes, we should not stick fingers in our ears and our heads in the sand but every three-to-five years there is another fad, another first-mover, another market leader, another football flavour that is THE BEST THING EVER and must be copied head to toe by the English powers that be if we are to achieve anything, ever.

At the moment, it’s the German model. Before that, La Masia and Barcelona. Before that, England was dominating Europe, following on from the all Serie A Champions League final of 2003, which naturally was a reaction to Real Madrid and Spain’s supremacy. Go into the nineties and earlier, see the great Italian dominance of Europe, including Milan’s successful defence of their European crown in 1990, and of course Ajax’s famous academy system.

As media attention has ramped up and become increasingly desperate to seek headlines by resorting to extremes, it is now the norm to decide whoever wins has the best plan, the best set up, the best system, and everyone else is failing. The German duo were extremely impressive as they beat Real Madrid and Barcelona. Bayern Munich comprehensively outclassed the Catalans who struggled without their talisman Leo Messi and, probably more importantly, without Carlos Puyol and Javier Mascherano, while Real left it too late to undo the damage exacted by Dortmund in the first leg.

There was some fantastic German talent on offer, and of that England manager Roy Hodgson can be envious. But the fact is the Premier League is such a worldwide phenomena, brings in such massive revenue and can offer such massive wages that of course it will attract the world’s best, in the same way that Serie A in the 90’s attracted the best players because it paid the biggest fees and wages, and how Real Madrid and Barcelona can tempt the best players in the Premier League to Spain, given their unfair share of La Liga TV revenue. To think English teams can easily adopt the German system of bringing through youth is simplistic. There are many unique factors (language, cultural immigration, money) that come into play.

But hey, I hear you cry, if we want a successful national team we need to follow the German method (which I imagine is the football equivalent of the missionary position – maximum efficiency). Let’s look at the record books – before 2002, Germany had won three world cups, finished runners up three times, and semi-finalists three times. They also won three European championships, twice runners up, and once semi-finalists. What I am saying is, the Germans have always been successful at international level, and it is somewhat ironic that they have not won a major international trophy since 1996 – seventeen years of hurt, it makes my heart bleed.

It is the Spanish model, shown up this week, that has proved the most successful in recent times, but again there are mitigating circumstances. The concentration of most of the players in two teams – the two teams in La Liga – will have helped the cohesion and understanding of the team. That Spain is basically Barcelona with Real’s power is no coincidence.

There is a lot to admire about the German system, just as there is much to admire in the Spanish, Dutch, Italian or Scottish systems (okay, maybe stretched a little far there). Germany certainly treats its fans a little better, and the ownership model has a lot of plus points, but equally you could argue that the rules that give fans 51% of the club allows Bayern Munich to dominate, as the signing of Mario Gotze from Dortmund shows. Bayern have finished well ahead of their rivals and you can only see the gap getting bigger. There is no Sheikh on the horizon to mix things up a bit.

Ticket prices are a lot lower, and it is shocking that as TV revenue for the Premier League increases so do match day prices, but recent announcements that ticket prices were to increase in the Bundesliga led to protests. It goes to show that’s it’s all relative, although naturally we’d rather have the German supporters’ price problems than ours.

When the English FA built St George’s Park they received phone calls from across the continent asking them what they were doing, how they were doing it, what they were planning, what they wanted out of it. Everyone wants to know the best practices so they can adopt and adapt to meet their requirements and their systems. When England had three semi finalists in the Champions League other countries were looking at how we marketed the league, how we tapped international markets, how we negotiated our TV deals. Italy changed from an individual to a collective bargaining agreement, Germany and Spain started moving matches to appeal to the Asian market. We need to do the same.

We should identify the best things about the German system, the Spanish system, in fact all systems, see how we can integrate them into how football is run in our country and mould them to suit our circumstances and our needs. Not simply say the Germans are winning ergo we should copy what they do.

Uli Hesse, a writer for ESPN, annually checks the stats and shows the Bundesliga has the most goals in it on average than any of Europe’s leagues, each year for the last decade. Where were the plaudits in 2003? Why weren’t people looking to their tactics and strategies back then? Because they were not winning and English teams were. Then the Spanish came. Now it is time for the Germans.

If we here in England only look to copy others we will always be one step behind. We need to find the best method that suits us, what we want and what we need. Only then can we lead the way and win the trophies. In the mean time, let’s slow down the German love fest. One all-German final does not mean a new era had begun. Yet.