Oliver Kahn, a legendary goalkeeper for Bayern Munich, highlighted the increasing financial disparities in the Bundesliga. From 1996 to 2008, Bayern won multiple titles, but the recent years have seen an even greater dominance with 12 of 13 titles from 2012 to 2025. Kahn pointed out that the competition has diminished, with lower-budget clubs struggling to compete against financially stronger teams. He noted that Bayern's substitutes often exceed the total value of entire squads from lesser teams, and the introduction of new revenue-generating competitions has exacerbated this imbalance, making the title race predictable and less engaging.
"During my playing days, the league was more open; there was more competition for the title and more German champions. The league hasn't been the supposedly 'most honest' competition for some time now. What's honest about a 30 or 40 million euro squad budget competing against a 300 million euro squad budget."
"FC Bayern's five substitutes are probably worth more than the entire squad of a club in the bottom third. This gap is getting bigger and bigger due to additional competitions like the artificially inflated Club World Cup, in which the participating top clubs generate additional revenue."
Collection
[
|
...
]