The Eighties

The Bundesliga: A History

Course 1 · Chapter 5 · The Eighties and the Rise of the Business

In the 1980s the league spread its winners more widely than in the previous decade, with Hamburg, Bayern, Stuttgart and Werder Bremen all champions. It was also the decade in which football became a larger business, with sponsorship, television money and rising wages, and in which crowd trouble forced a rethink of safety. This chapter follows the football, the money and the fans. Names, dates and results are from general knowledge and flagged for checking.

The Clubs

Hamburg

Hamburger SV won several league titles around the turn of the decade and the European Cup in 1983, beating Juventus in the final (check the years, the score and the coach).

Bayern Munich

Bayern remained the biggest club, winning more titles in the first half of the decade and again in the mid-1980s (check the count and the years).

Werder Bremen

Under coach Otto Rehhagel the club from Bremen became a regular challenger and won the title at the end of the decade (check the years and later successes).

Others

VfB Stuttgart won the title in 1984, and clubs such as Cologne and Mönchengladbach remained strong (check).

Sponsors and Television

  • Shirt sponsorship. A German club, Eintracht Braunschweig, put a drinks company's name on its shirts in the early 1970s, and the DFB at first resisted before accepting sponsorship (check the club, the firm and the dates). By the 1980s sponsors were common and a major source of income.
  • Television. Public broadcasters showed highlights, with the main programme becoming a Saturday fixture (check the programme and its history). Private channels arrived later in the decade and the 1990s (Chapter 9, check).
  • Rising wages. As income grew, so did players' pay, and the best players could earn far more than before, though less than in Italy at the time (check).
  • Stars leaving. Some German internationals moved to richer clubs abroad, especially in Italy, as the league competed for talent (check examples).

Crowd Trouble and Safety

  • Hooliganism. The 1980s saw violence at and around matches in many European countries, and Germany had its own organised groups of troublemakers (check examples and how serious it was).
  • The European context. The 1985 disaster at the Heysel stadium in Brussels, where fans died, led to a ban on English clubs in European competition and a wider rethink of security (check the details).
  • Responses. Fences, closed-circuit cameras, tighter policing and stadium bans, with debate about how far they were fair and effective (check, neutral treatment, and see Chapter 8 for the fan side).
  • Fan projects. Social work programmes with young supporters began in Germany in this period (check the origin and name).
A league growing up The 1980s show the league becoming more like a business: sponsors, television, wages and security all grew together. These changes laid the ground for the arguments over money and ownership that dominate Chapters 7 and 9.
A British comparison English football in the 1980s had its own troubles with hooliganism, the Heysel ban, and the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, which led to the Taylor Report and all-seater stadiums in the top divisions (check). Germany took a different route, keeping standing areas in many grounds with safety measures, a difference Chapter 8 returns to.
Check the details Title years, European Cup details, sponsorship dates and the history of television coverage vary between sources. Verify against club records, the DFL or a reliable history before quoting any figure.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Describe three sources of income that grew in the 1980s and explain the effect of each on clubs.

→ Solution
Exercise 2

Explain why crowd trouble in other countries could change policy in Germany.

→ Solution
Exercise 3

Argue for and against fences and strict policing as a response to crowd trouble, and say what evidence would help decide.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

  • Clubs: Hamburg (European Cup 1983), Bayern, Stuttgart, Werder Bremen (check)
  • Money: shirt sponsorship, television, rising wages
  • Talent: stars moving to richer clubs abroad (check)
  • Safety: hooliganism, Heysel 1985, tighter security (check)
  • Result: football becoming more of a business