In the global footballing landscape, there’s no denying the fact that the English Premier League as a far more powerful financial giant than the Bundesliga. To add to that, a lot of the other European clubs that are state-owned and/or sponsored arguably draw more attention than German football as a whole, especially when it comes to the UEFA Champions League. Of course, there have been steps in reducing the polarity that exists between English and German football like Harry Kane leaving Tottenham
for Bayern Munich, but the semi-baseless “farmer’s league” ideology still has not completely fizzled out.
Ahead of Bayern’s Champions League opener against Chelsea at the Allianz Arena, Vincent Kompany was directly asked about how the German top flight is viewed in England in comparison to the Premier League, of which the Belgian has plenty of familiarity with as both a player and manager. For him, coming from a small town in Belgium and having been around the Belgian league, Premier League, Bundesliga and English Football Championship, Kompany is able to have a full perspective from both sides of the argument.
“But how many players did they buy from the Bundesliga? How much money did they spend on Bundesliga players? I’m from Belgium, a small country. In Belgium, people always look to other bigger countries and we respect every league. In Germany, people pay a lot of attention to the Bundesliga; in England, they pay a lot of attention to the Premier League. Obviously there’s a big financial gap between the Premier League and other leagues. We have to think about how we solve that one day,” Kompany explained in the press conference ahead of the Chelsea clash (via @iMiaSanMia).
In Germany, there are still contrasting opinions on whether or not they should get rid of the 50+1 rule to try to help even the financial playing field, but even with the rule in place by the DFB and DFL, clubs have found ways to circumvent it. Both RB Leipzig and TSG Hoffenheim have been heavily criticized by opposition fans for the ways in which their ownership and front offices have found ways to skirt around the rules in place, but it pales in comparison to how much money is flowing in the English top flight, especially with recent influxes of incredibly wealthy Saudi Arabian and American business consortiums.
“The Bundesliga certainly has a lot of talent, English teams have bought a lot of players from here. But tomorrow isn’t about Bundesliga against Premier League. It’s Bayern against Chelsea,“ Kompany concluded on the matter. Last season, he was faced with a number of key injuries during the vital stages of the Champions League knockout stages, and still came very close to getting to the semi-finals. Hopefully this time around, injury luck is far better and Bayern, along with the other Bundesliga clubs in the competition, can go far to help get closer to silencing the ”farmer’s league” and adjacent type of comments from non-German football fans/viewers.
Bayern Munich will square off with Chelsea in the Champions League at the Allianz Arena in what will surely be an electric atmosphere.
Germany’s biggest club will host a traditional English power…what else can you ask for? Let’s stop wasting time and get into this showdown between two of the more dangerous teams in the competition:
- What a crazy way to start the Champions League
- What to watch for with Chelsea — this team is loaded, but also does have a couple of injuries to deal with.
- A look at Bayern Munich’s injury situation as Vincent Kompany appears to have settled into his starting XI for big matches.
- A guess at Bayern Munich’s starting XI.
- A prediction on the match.
Also, be sure to stay tuned to Bavarian Podcast Works for all of your up to date coverage on Bayern Munich and Germany. Check us out on Patreon and follow us on Twitter @BavarianFBWorks, @BavarianPodcast @TheBarrelBlog, @BFWCyler, @2012nonexistent, @TommyAdams71 and more.
