History of the German Bundesliga

Despite its domination by Bayern Munich, the Bundesliga still remains one of the most competitive football formats in the world. Bayern Munich's "policy" of poaching talents from their competitors has led to the Bavarians being nicknamed FC Hollywood. Besides the league, teams as well participate in the DFB-Pokal. Despite being founded by the DFB, the league is currently overseen by the DFL. As a result of the German unification, the league was restructured so as to integrate and accommodate teams from the former East German regions. The league can trace its origins to Leipzig as its where the DFB was initially formed, although the real crafting of the league took place in Dortmund later after calls for a national league were intensified for the reason that the German national teams had been mauled by Yugoslavia in a World Cup fixture in Chile. Although at first there were five oberligens - premier leagues, the structure has been narrowed to comprise a single championship. In 2004, a custom of recognizing serial league winners by displaying stars on their badges was initiated in a process known as "verdiente meistervereine". The German native talents currently flooding the league can be attributed to the national team's poor performance during the 2000 UEFA EURO championships - an act that led to the calls for more talent in all teams in both tiers. This deeply contrasts the occurrences in the English Premier League that strives to attract any foreign player - maybe under the motivation of tax cuts. Currently, no individual is permitted to own more than forty nine percent of any club in the Bundesliga - save for Bayer Leverkusen and VfL Wolfsburg for the reason that they were initially formed as factory football teams. The Bundesliga prides itself as having the best attendance averagely, although this can be linked to the fact that out of the five top leagues in Europe, the German model has the second lowest ticket rates. The low tickets model has led to some prominent personalities to take a dig at England - anyway, thats typical of Germans. For instance, Uli Hoeness - the disgraced former Bayern Munich's president was quoted as saying that the difference between England and Germany as regards football is that while the former is monetary oriented, the latter is fan friendly! Ouch, thats so sarcastic when it comes from an individual who was found guilty of tax evasion. Funny enough, no club from the former East German regions has won the Bundesliga, neither has a club from the capital - Berlin, won the trophy! Strange indeed. Overall, the following clubs have won the Bundesliga; Bayern Munich, Werder Bremen, Borussia Dortmund, VfB Stuttgart, Hamburger SV, TSV 1860 Munich, Borussia Monchengladbach, FC Koln/Cologne, FC Kaiserslautern, FC Nurnberg, VfL Wolfsburg and Eintracht Braunschweig. Former Eintracht Frankfurt's footballer Karl-Heinz Korbel holds the record for most appearances while Gerd Muller or "der bomber" holds the record for most goals scored - curiously enough, Jupp Heynckes makes it to number three! Borussia Dortmund's Signal Iduna Park is the largest stadium, Hertha Berlin's Olympiastadion comes second while Bayern Munich's Allianz Arena comes third. Schalke 04's Veltins-Arena, VfB Stuttgarts's Mercedes-Benz Arena and Hamburger SV's Imtech Arena complete the top six stadiums. The championship as well has several derbies; Munich derby - Bayern Munich vs 1860 Munich, Bavarian derby - Bayern Munich vs Nurnberg, Revierderby - Borussia Dortmund vs Schalke 04, Nordderby - Hamburger SV vs Werder Bremen, Political derby - Hansa Rostock vs St. Pauli, Rheinland derby - FC Koln vs Borussia Monchengladbach and the Hamburg derby - Hamburger SV vs St. Pauli. All in all, none comes close to Der Klassiker - Bayern Munich vs Borussia Dortmund. Gerd Muller holds the record for most goals in a season while Bayern Munich rules with most titles won. Typically, the German league has for long been dominated by natives and this led to the growth of local talent - Gerd Muller, Franz Beckenbauer, Uwe Seeler, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Rudi Voller, Stefan Kuntz, Ulf Kirsten, Mario Gomez, Miroslav Klose, Stefan Kiessling, Mario Basler, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thomas Muller, Lukas Podolski, Oliver Kahn, Philip Lahm, Mats Hummels, Mario Gotze, Ilkay Gundogan, Marco Reus, Toni Kroos, Manuel Neuer, Sami Khedira, Mesut Ozil et al. Personalities from other countries have as well played in the league for instance, Robert Lewandowski, Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery, Xabi Alonso, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Ebbe Sand, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Theofanis Gekas, Owen Hargreaves, Luca Toni, Edin Dzeko, Grafite, Anthony Yeboah, Ze Roberto, Claudio Pizzaro, Bixente Lizarazu, Martin Demichelis, Ivica Olic, Mario Mandzukic, Xherdan Shaqiri et al.