{"id":1784,"date":"2020-11-14T19:25:16","date_gmt":"2020-11-14T19:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1784"},"modified":"2020-11-18T11:02:26","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T11:02:26","slug":"interlull-alert-england-v-germany-but-only-on-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1784","title":{"rendered":"Interlull Alert: England v Germany (but only on paper)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A guilty secret – I have to start by owning up to watching the whole of the Amazon Prime series, All or Nothing, about Tottenham Hotspur. I was, of course, expecting it to be a whole load of Nothing, and given the subject matter and the terms of the series title, it was. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like everything to do with Jose Mourinho, who was about to enter the fray at the dark end of the Seven Sisters Road, the series was really All about Mourinho. In reality, what else was there to talk about at a club that has a Cheese Room instead of a Trophy Room and whose main current boast seems to be the longest catering counter in the world, next to its own brewery? Mourinho proved himself, once again, to be a miserable, four letter word spewing, dinosaur of a coach, whose most urgent instruction to his players was, when on the pitch, to \u201cbe nasty C u next Tuesdays\u201d, (just in case any minors are reading).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, we all know more than enough about Jose Mourinho. The point is, I had enjoyed a lot of pleasure from watching more acrimony, chucking under the bus and ultimate failure at the Totts, and was drawn to another Amazon football series, this time featuring Borussia Dortmund, which I began watching straight away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The difference was immediate and stark. The Head Coach of Borussia Dortmund is a man called Lucien Favre – an apparently quietly spoken, intelligent man who seems to foster a trusting relationship with his players, rather than the snide suspicion engendered by Mourinho. The atmosphere in the changing room seemed to be one of friendliness, the players looked relaxed and smiled and laughed a lot amongst one another and the staff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, the Tottenham dressing room was quiet, glances were cast sideways, blame was directed from one to another, just as it is always Mourinho\u2019s way to point the finger at someone for every failing. Mourinho demands from individuals, then threatens, omits and ignores players who can\u2019t deliver what he wants. There always seemed to be a player in the manager\u2019s office demanding to know why he wasn\u2019t in the team, or being dressed down for his latest shortcomings. His way is to buy big and his teams seem to be collections of individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Favre has a different way. For him the team is vital, at the heart of everything. Then comes \u201crunning\u201d. He says that before you worry about the mental fitness to play at the highest level, you must first have one other thing – running. If you can\u2019t run and don\u2019t have physical fitness, mental fitness is useless, if not impossible. He also says that it doesn\u2019t matter how gifted players are if there is no \u201cteam – you have to really build a team\u201d. That will come as no surprise to us, after 22 years of Arsene Wenger and now the similarly inspired Mikel Arteta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These comparisons led me to wonder how football compared in wider terms between England and Germany. If these two randomly chosen clubs appeared so different in the way they operated, were there other cultural or organisational differences between the two leagues? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I may be only just in time, as there are now moves afoot to either radically change the organisation of the top European Leagues, or add a Super League to what we already have, possibly in place of the Champions League. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE CLUB OWNERS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not really a surprise that multi-billionaire owners from America, Russia, Arab states and the Far East are now looking to take their product of European football to their own huge home audiences at far more conducive kick off times than European countries currently offer. They will also be able to offer glamorous top-quality opposition for their clubs every week, rather than the harder sell of Burnley or Sheffield United on the infamous wet, freezing Tuesday night in November. Clubs would presumably either leave their domestic leagues or expand their squads as they prioritise the big money on offer in the Super League and still try to operate a team in their home competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In either case it\u2019s hard to imagine that the quality of the domestic leagues will not be seriously diluted unless someone comes to their senses, as far as most fans are concerned, and throws the idea out. It does, however, bring us to the subject of club ownership, for which purpose let\u2019s return to the comparisons between England and Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Germany, in order to obtain a license to compete in the Bundesliga, a club must abide by the 50+1 rule. The 50+1 Regel is an informal term used to refer to a clause in the regulations of the Deutsche Fussball-Liga which states that a club must hold a majority of its own voting rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, who owns Bayern Munich? The club is majorly run by spin-off company FC Bayern M\u00fcnchen AG which accounts for a 75% stake in the club. There are then three other companies who share the remaining 25% stake equally. Sports manufacturer Adidas, car company Audi and the Allianz insurance group each own an 8.33% stake in Bayern Munich. Day to day operations and workings of the club are controlled by the football club board directors. Interestingly, in November 2019 the legendary Uli Hoeness was replaced as club chairman by Herbert Hainer who until then had been CEO of club sponsor Adidas Group. It\u2019s almost like there was a succession plan!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chairman of the football club at Bayern, however, represents the club members, of which there are some 293,000, who all pay an annual membership of between \u20ac60.00 for a full adult member, to \u20ac30.00 for children u17, senior citizens and disabled members, while young adults aged 18-25 pay \u20ac40.00. Assuming equal proportions at each level that would raise \u20ac13,000,000 per season in fees before match tickets are taken into account. In addition, the club runs its own subscription TV channel, FC Bayern TV Plus for \u20ac4.00 per month or \u20ac36.00 per 12 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their commercial department is clearly knocking spots off our own. In terms of revenue, Bayern is the largest sports club in Germany and the fourth highest earning football club in the world, generating an estimated \u20ac660.1 million in 2020. In the 2018-19 season they reported revenue of \u20ac750.4 million and an operating profit of \u20ac146.1 million. That was Bayern\u2019s 27th consecutive year in profit. The club runs other departments for a variety of sports including handball, basketball, gymnastics, bowling, table tennis and a senior football section with over 1,100 members. At the end of the 2019-20 season, Bayern was ranked 1st in the UEFA club coefficient rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not supposed to be a Bayern Munich love in, but compare and contrast with what has happened at the Arsenal since moving to the Emirates Stadium in 2006, which was supposed to propel us into the top five or six clubs in Europe. Our current UEFA ranking puts us in 10th place, due mainly to our record of continuous involvement and points accrued in the Champions League with Arsene Wenger – I don\u2019t even want to think about where we would be if it was recalculated every year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bayern have achieved all this without an Arab sheikh, a Russian oligarch or a state financed investment company and with a fan base of comparable size to our own. When we moved to the new stadium there were reckoned to be 200,000+ fans with an interest in attending matches, including season ticket holders, silver and red members, people on waiting lists estimated to run for ten years, and would be \u201ccasuals\u201d who would wait for general sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our ownership, as we know, is now in the hands of a single shareholder and our executive management has lurched from Gazidis to Sanllehi and the influence of a couple of \u201csuper agents\u201d. Between them, they have allowed our contract management to become a disaster, our squad to become badly unbalanced, ticket waiting lists have dwindled and our accounts have slid worryingly into the red. In fairness there have been recent signs of a determination not to let us continue the slide, with the signings of Tierney, Gabriel and Thomas Partey, and the re-signing of Aubameyang and Bukayo Saka. Overall, I have to say it makes me personally gaze with envy at the German model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One obvious place is to PLAYER SALARIES. In the current times of Covid-19 pandemic some players are lucky to get paid at all as clubs battle to stay afloat, while elite players are extremely lucky, as they continue to be paid sums that most of us can only dream of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Germany, in the 2019\/20 season, Bayern were the highest payers with an average annual player salary of US$ 8.12 million, while Paderborn were the lowest paying Bundesliga club at US$ 0.42 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In England, Manchester City were the highest payers with an average annual salary of \u00a36.99 million ($ 9.08m @1.30\/\u00a3) and Newcastle were the lowest payers at \u00a32.09 million ($ 2.72). Arsenal are fourth highest in the Premier League at \u00a34.79million ($6.22m) average annual salary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of individuals, we have: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bayern<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manuel Neuer (GK) $10m, Robert Lewandowski $20m, Coutinho $24m(!!<\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Man City<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ederson (GK) $5.3m,  Sergio Aguero $15.47m,  de Bruyne $23.66m<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leno(GK) $6.76m,  P-E Aubameyang $16.9m,  \u00d6zil $23.4m<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another area of obvious importance is TRANSFER INCOME AND EXPENDITURE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here the Premier League really flexes its muscles* \/ threatens to go bust* (*delete as appropriate) against its German counterpart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The summer 2020 window went as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bundesliga<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Departures 232           Total Income \u00a3292.7m     Income Per Club \u00a316.3m<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Premier League<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Departures 260           Total Income \u00a3399.2m     Income Per Club \u00a319.9m<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bundesliga<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arrivals 237    Total Spend \u00a3292.2m       Spend Per Club \u00a316.2m<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Premier<\/strong> League<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arrivals 293    Total Spend \u00a31,329.3m    Spend Per Club \u00a366.5m<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bundesliga<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Total Balance \u00a3468,000            Balance Per Club \u00a326,000<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Premier League<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Total Balance -\u00a3930,200,000     Balance Per Club -\u00a346,500,000<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This suggests either amazing coincidence or extremely tight collective management of funds in the German league and, to a financial incompetent like myself, the eventual suicide of many clubs in England. But we all want or need nice shiny new players, so how did Arsenal fare against the big spenders of the two countries?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Last set of figures, I promise.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bayern Munich <\/strong>   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Total Income \u00a319.8m       Total Exp \u00a355.8m             Total Balance  -\u00a336m<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal FC<\/strong>        <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Total Income \u00a316.8m       Total Exp \u00a377.4m            Total Balance  -\u00a360.6m<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Man City         <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Total Income \u00a355.5m       Total Exp \u00a3154.6m            Total Balance  -\u00a399.1m<\/strong>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, Arsenal sits right in the middle of the biggest German and English spenders, but it seems that at the top of the game in both countries, we\u2019re all still in business at the whim of the banks and extremely rich individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These levels of spending do of course have an effect on probably the most important issue of all to match going fans – the cost of attending matches, buying the latest shirts and TV subscriptions. Because of the ownership and control model of clubs in Germany, at least the cost of attending matches in the Bundesliga is much cheaper than attending matches in the English Premier League. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

COST OF ATTENDING MATCHES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Germany, SC Paderborn have taken the opportunity to cash in on their promotion to the top flight and, despite being the lowest payers in the Bundesliga, have the most expensive Standing Season Ticket at \u20ac225 \/ \u00a3202 (no, that is not a typo!) while Bayern Munich charge \u20ac219 \/ \u00a3197 per season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All season tickets in the Bundesliga are cheaper than their English counterparts but getting your name on one can consequently be difficult. Last season, Bayern again sold out of their \u20ac145 \/ \u00a3130 season tickets and shifted every single ticket for their 17 away league fixtures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ok, swallow hard now folks. Arsenal have the most expensive season tickets in the Premier League, despite freezing prices for five seasons in a row, and actually reducing them when we dropped from the Champions League to the Europa League. The cheapest adult season ticket at the Emirates is \u00a3891 – \u00a396 more expensive than the next highest price which is at Tottenham. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My own season ticket at the Emirates was in centre block, half way up the upper tier, right over the half way line where the players run out. A superb view but which cost a shade over \u00a32,000 per season before reducing to around \u00a31,750 when we dropped to the Europa. To take my daughter to one of our Barcelona CL home games, including a hot dog and a cup of tea, cost a combined \u00a3250+. Club Level at the Emirates is about twice as much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

England\u2019s lowest payers, Newcastle United (our own SC Paderborn), charge \u00a3658 for their cheapest season ticket, while a season in East Stand, Category One will set you back \u00a3811. At Liverpool, the cheapest ticket is in the Kop at \u00a3685 and the dearest is in the Main Stand at \u00a3869. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s therefore much more affordable for families and younger fans to attend Bundesliga matches than the Premier League, which results in younger, noisier crowds and atmospheres than many matches here. Those atmospheres are also improved by the competitiveness of the league and the fact that standing is allowed in German stadia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE COMPETITION <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bundesliga is made up of 18 teams, each therefore playing 34 matches per season. Their boast is that the league remains competitive throughout, maintaining fans\u2019 excitement to the end. Bayern Munich are clearly the dominant side but what changes on a regular basis is the composition of their \u201ctop four\u201d. Borussia Dortmund are always there or thereabouts and have been joined in recent seasons by RB Leipzig, fuelled by cash injections from Red Bull and driven by their highly rated head coach Julian Nagelsmann. Schalke and Bayer Leverkusen are regular challengers, with Freiburg and Hertha Berlin making advances and Borussia Monchengladbach improving under Marco Rose. Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt make up the top ten and they are quite capable as we found to our cost last season in the Europe League, losing 1-2 to them at home, having beaten them 3-0 on their own ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In England it is still rare for a new team to break into the top four or five positions in the league, which generally reflect the teams\u2019 budgets. Perhaps the increased competitiveness across the German league is the result of their more controlled and similar spending patterns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE MANAGERS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the 18 managers in the Bundesliga, 14 are German. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Niko Kovac, the Croat who was in charge of Bayern until the end of last year, has now been replaced by Hansi Flick (yep ok, \u2018Allo, \u2018Allo fans!). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucien Favre at Dortmund is Swiss, Oliver Glasner at Wolfsburg is Austrian, Ante Covic at Hertha Berlin is Croatian, and Urs Fischer at Union Berlin is a Swiss who has taken the lesser known Berlin team into the top flight for the first time in their history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is clearly a very high proportion of indigenous managers, with no superstar names among the \u201cimports\u201d, and those brought in tend to come from the German speaking countries, Austria and Switzerland, although Lucien Favre is from the French speaking Saint-Barth\u00e8lemy area of Switzerland. This policy presumably helps with the development and integration of German youth players on which their teams rely so heavily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was slightly shocked to discover that in the Premier League, traditionally infamous for not giving British managers a chance, there are no less than 10 \u201chome-grown\u201d managers currently operating – at Villa, Brighton, Burnley, Chelsea, Palace, Fulham, Leicester, Newcastle, Sheffield United and West Ham. Only Chelsea amongst the usual top six – if you include Tottenham – employ a British manager – a count which improves by one if you replace the LWCs with Leicester and Brendan Rodgers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT REALLY MATTERS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When all the facts and figures are done though, the most important things in football to fans are not matters of the head, but most definitely of the heart – the emotions tied to your team, the rivalries, the memories – often from early childhood, glory days, suffering, the friendships cemented over years of supporting your club whether in England, Germany or from afar, as many of the readers here have proved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Super Leagues and the resulting travel, time and ticket costs threaten to soar for fans across Europe, there is a lesson to be learned which has been rammed home in no uncertain terms by the curse of the Covid-19 pandemic. It doesn\u2019t matter how many hundreds of millions of pounds, euros, or dollars owners spend on trying to buy glory, security or even bigger broadcasting profits for themselves, without fans in the ground, elite football matches become mundane, echoey, uninspiring, glorified park kickabouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the sake of their own investments, the game and especially the fans who have made it what it is, let\u2019s hope the owners recognise that fact before they destroy the thing we all love so much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A guilty secret – I have to start by owning up to watching the whole of the Amazon Prime series, All or Nothing, about Tottenham Hotspur. I was, of course, expecting it to be a whole load of Nothing, and given the subject matter and the terms of the series title, it was.  Like everything […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1784"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1805,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784\/revisions\/1805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}