The German Bundesliga is home to some of the biggest clubs in Europe; Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 to name but a few. These clubs have been performing extremely well in the Champions League with Bayern winning the crown as recently as 2014.
The critics on the other hand label the Bundesliga as a one-horse race dominated by Bayern but clubs like Dortmund and Schalke have been participating regularly in the knock-out stages of the Champions League and creating problems for some of the biggest European teams.
Even though the Bundesliga has been around for more than 52 years in its current format, it is not the first thing that comes to mind when you’re thinking about the “best league” in Europe. The English Premier League has more money, the Spanish La Liga has more glamour and the Italian Serie A has more history when compared with the Bundesliga but the German league has some strong points of its own which makes it special, and in this article, I will be explaining why the Bundesliga is the best league in Europe.
Ever since its inception, the Bundesliga has been all about its fans. The stadiums are huge, the tickets are cheap and the fans get to have a say in the decision making process of a club. As a result, the stadiums are always filled with cheerful fans chanting for their beloved clubs and the stadiums are also hospitable for the fans of away teams. The “50 plus one” rule ensures that no individual can have a majority stake in a Bundesliga side and fan members of the club are the majority shareholders. This prevents clubs from being under the thumbs of Russian oligarchs and Arab sheikhs who would end up treating the clubs as their personal “play things”, as seen in the Premier League.
In short, in the Bundesliga, the fans own the club. The ticket prices in the Bundesliga are also cheaper when compared to the Premier League and the big La Liga clubs. A season ticket-holder at Dortmund, who are one of the biggest clubs in Europe, would cost 600 euros at most. On the other hand, season tickets at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium would cost above 1000 pounds. The presence of standing tickets also allows more people to enjoy the game and creates a volatile atmosphere for any away team.
In the late 90s, the German national team were facing a decline. They had hit rock bottom when they ended up finishing last in their group in the Euro 2000, and changes were required. This caused the German Football Association to overhaul the youth academies of the clubs and do talent recruitment programmes, which provided the clubs with fresh young talent. Clubs who had youth academies improved their facilities and clubs without proper youth academies had to create them. This resulted in the injection of new, younger talent in the German footballing structure. Players like Thomas Mueller, Marco Reus, Jerome Boateng and Mario Goetze were a product of the overhauled German youth system and this resulted in better performance from the national team, ending up reaching at least the semi-finals in all the World Cups held after the year 2000 and also the creation of the golden generation who won the 2014 Fifa World Cup.
All the elite clubs in Europe look at the Bundesliga for the recruitment of quality players. Recent examples include Toni Kroos’ transfer from Bayern to Real Madrid and Son Heung-min’s transfer from Bayer Leverkusen to Tottenham Hotspur. In summary, this overhaul in the youth system has resulted in a huge increase of quality in German football and the effects of these changes will be felt for years to come.
Ultimately, all these elements mix together to form a high quality, attractive, fast-paced brand of football loved by the fans. With the talent on offer, the German national team are going to dominate world football for many more years and the Bundesliga will be doing the same in Europe. Bayern are already a major force in European football and clubs like Dortmund, VfL Wolfsburg and Bayer are slowly catching up. The English Premier League was the past, the La Liga is the present, and the Bundesliga will become the future.