Oliver Kahn is certain that a club's sustained run of titles is detrimental to a league in the long term. Yet that was exactly his job at Bayern Munich, to win titles.
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- In an interview, Oliver Kahn spoke about the challenges facing football.
- At its core, football is about keeping a competition exciting right to the end. If a club wins the championship eleven times in a row, it harms the entire league in the long run.
- In order to remain attractive, the competition in football must not become "even more predictable". And that requires change. According to Kahn, however, football would struggle with such changes.
"Football has a hard time with change," says Oliver Kahn in an interview with "Sports Illustrated". The former Bayern CEO sees the hesitation of club managers when it comes to upcoming decisions as one of the reasons for this.
The club bosses would perhaps like to change something in the interests of the club, but are hesitant because of the risk of being exposed to "massive criticism" and no longer being elected as president. Kahn cites the failed investor deal in the German Football League as an example. By protesting against this deal, the fans played a major role in changing the mindset of the league's managers.
Kahn talks about his experience at FC Bayern and criticizes: "In Munich, it is very difficult to initiate necessary changes and to break new ground." FC Bayern is very political and the forces work in different directions. "Getting to grips with that is the biggest challenge."
The pitfalls of a series of titles
Apparently, Kahn did not get everything under control at the record champions. In May last year, the club ended its collaboration with its former goalkeeper. In the following season, Bayern went without a title for the first time since 2012. An event that Kahn - detached from his history with FCB - may well welcome.
"The competition must not become even more predictable. If the competition is dominated by a few clubs over a longer period of time, then success becomes inflationary and therefore devalued." Kahn questions the honesty of a league competition if there are tens of millions between the teams in terms of squad budgets and surprises become increasingly rare.
A competition should be exciting right to the end. That is the essence of the sport. In the long run, it is detrimental to the entire league if one club becomes champion for the eleventh time in a row, even if Bayern Munich cannot be blamed for this.
Kahn: "... I still had to become champion"
Although Kahn is not a fan of title streaks in terms of football, that is exactly what he wanted to achieve with Bayern: "When I was in charge at FC Bayern, I was of course aware of that, but I still wanted and had to become champion."
Kahn succeeded in doing just that. During his tenure with Bayern, he won the championship twice and the German Super Cup twice - Bayern's last successes to date. Leverkusen brought down the seemingly unbeatable Munich team and climbed to the top of the league. A break in style after Bayern's many years of league dominance.
