Bayern's veiled threat to leave the Bundesliga for Serie A if punnished by the DFL, while quite fanciful and utterly silly, does intrigue. The question is, what if it actually happened? What would be the fate of both the Bundesliga and Bayern? First, the Bundesliga part: The Bad - Bundesliga looses it's one glamour club that is one of Europe's best, and all of the prestige that goes with it. This means less TV and less international recognition. The Good - Bundesliga becomes truely competitive. The Bundesliga, with Bayern, is well on it's way to irrelevance because of Bayern's utter dominence. Fans throughout Germany and the rest of the world become less and less interested in the Bundesliga because they all know that Bayern will win it every year unless they experience a rash of injuries or total exhaustion from Champions League competition. Without Bayern, the Bundesliga has more parity, where Dortmund, Schalke, Hertha, Stuttgart, Kaiserslautern, Bayer, Bremen, Hamburg all have opportunity to win BL championship. With greater competition comes greater interest. Now the Bayern part: It would be completely facsinating to see how Bayern would compete in Serie A. Completely different style of play, plus they would face teams such as Juventus, Inter and Milan that are all as good or better than Bayern. Bayern would most certainly experience more humility. Any thoughts?
I've thought about this a bit. I'm not a Bayern-basher, as a way of introduction. My conclusion: let Bayern go. My rationale: the BL has a real opportunity without Bayern to institute an NFL-style revenue sharing scheme. Such a move places the BL at a distinct disadvantage in CL-play, at least short term, since no team could hope to approach the spending of the top teams in the other top Euro leagues. But, and it's a big but, I think the BL teams would go for this (absent Bayern). This will in a relatively short period of time lead to a very healthy, competitive and exciting product domestically, which will eventually translate to increased profitability and, ultimately, top teams that can compete in CL play (and second-tier teams that will kick butt in UEFA). Bayern would never go for this, which is why their departure would not be a bad thing. P.S. UEFA and Italy won't let Bayern play in Italy.
Let me point out the bad side of such a scenario. Bayern, without a league to play in, can survive just by playing the random exhibition and CL game next year, but after that would need to find a place to play. This might provide the impetus for the big clubs throughout Europe to band together and form their Super League, which is something I don't want to see. I could envision the Super League siphoning of TV money from the domestic leagues and thereby reducing even the best leagues to the equivalent of the Belgian or Swiss leagues. With that downturn, the Super League becomes the only real alternative for top-notch soccer. Of course, it is also possible (I hope) that the TV money available to the Super League is insufficient to support its clubs' ambitions, thus collpasing the Super League under its own weight.
More food for thought - Wouldn't be totally hilarious if the DFL took Bayern's threat to leave for Serie A and said: "Sounds great, knock yourself out, we'll continue on without you" and made it reality by bannishing them from the BL? Serie A and UEFA, of course, would not allow Bayern to play in Serie A. So Bayern would be a team without a league. Ya think they'd come back with their tails between their legs, begging to be allowed back in the BL? I am a long time Bayern fan and I've been questioning my loyalty lately due to their well documented antics. Having said that, I would utterly, completely enjoy the above scenario.
I don't think Bayern would finish any higher than 4th or 5th in Serie A in their best season. Kaiser Franz is always farting higher than his arse. I say, be careful what you wish for, Franz, you might just get it. Having said that, I agree that a Bayern-less BL would be more competitive and more fun to watch. I'm sure 1860 Munich would love to see 'em go so they could be the only Munich-based BL team !!!
In their best season Bayern wins the CL or plays for the title. That would suggest a team more than capable of challenging for the Serie A title. As for all their bravado. If they leave for Serie A you can rest assured they'll lose a good number of their German fans in doing so. Sounds like a bunch of hot air to me.
I wish the DFL would do it; call Bayern's bluff, hold a league meeting the next day, ram a revenue sharing proposal (TV, CL, merchandise, marketing revenue shared) through whatever process there is, and when Bayern comes crawling back (as, you point out, they must, absent a Super League), tell them, welcome, we're delighted to have you back and, oh, by the way, you only get 1/18th of the revenue from TV, CL, merchandising and marketing anymore.
Actually, I think the DFL should say "Adios" to Bayern. Then the DFL and the rest of the BL would be in the drivers seat. Bayern is constantly playing the underhanded strong-arm tactics because they are the big boys and can get away with it. So I say let 'em follow through on their threat. Once they are stuck without a league they will become powerless and the BL can set up whatever TV money, revenue sharing scheme it wants. And Bayern, if it wants back in, will have to go along with it. This reminds me of my dog. He is a high energy Schipperke (small black dog) who likes to run a lot. He will be turning two years old in June, and thus is still quite young and undisciplined. One of his discipline problems has been bolting out the front door when we have it open. Being the concered dog owners we are, my wife and I would chase him because we were concered he'd get hit by a car or something. He would turn this into a game. Then we finally wised up and decided that chasing him is the worse thing to do. Now we simply close the door behind him if he gets out. Invariably, he will be whimpering outside the front door within five minutes or so. We took away the game and we cut him off from what he wants - to be with us. Now there is no more problem. Long, boring story about my dog aside, think about Bayern being this little black dog!
He was quick. I thought it might be your dog because it looked a lot like Jens Jeremies (actually, I take that back; I certainly don't want to offend you or your dog).
Just to emphasis one thing: the threat to leave the league was one of the many statements of Franz Beckenbauer he did not really think about before. Uli Hoeneß and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge were pretty shocked about the reactions, stated to not want to leave and even seeked the public confrontation with Beckenbauer. At the moment the Bayern officials are not very friendly with another and Beckenbauer meanwhile thinks about withdrawing from his functions.
I could imagine 1860 fans praying that the Bayern take their ball(and Beckenbauer) away from the BL. Actually, it looks like the Kaiser is pretty bored and is looking for a confrontation.
In reality this will never happen. And as a Bayern basher I am really sad about it. But let´s be honest. The Bundesliga would lose charme. It´s the same with players you don´t like. For example I always hated Matthäus (though he was a great player) or Basler, or Effenberg. And now that they are gone (or will be soon) I am bored. Football needs polarisation. We need to "hate" clubs or players. As long as they are around you say "away with them". When they are gone i´ts getting boring. domingo *Scheiß FC Bayern! Scheiß Fc Baaaaayern! Wir singen scheiß FC Bayern!*
Oh, it would be very funny to see the Bundesliga without the FCB. Less money from the TV-staions less audience in the stadiums less worldclass players etc. Don't get me wrong, i'm a fan of the FCb, but not everything Uli Hoeneß, KHR and co do or did was/is good, but the BUndesliga needs the fcb, and the FCB needs the Bundesliga. Why do you take every word Beckenbauer says for granted? Everyone knows, he sometimes doesn't use his brain, when he talks.