Oliver Kahn’t take heat over City’s ban win
BAYERN Munich director Oliver Kahn has admitted that City’s victory in over-turning Uefa’s European ban has made it tougher for Bayern to win the Champions League.
And the former Germany goalkeeper called for tougher financial fair play (FFP) rules to ‘get more balanced competition.’
That comes after Bayern, easily the richest club in the Bundesliga and a firm supporter of FFP, won their eighth title on the bounce.
Critics of FFP say that they turn both domestic and European competitions into a boring procession in which only the traditionally big, wealthy clubs win.
Thy see the introduction of FFP as being driven by those powerful clubs in a bid to stop the march of clubs like City, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain, who have all benefited from investment by rich owners.
Kahn, who will succeed Karl Heinz Rummenigge as chief executive of Bayern in 2022, says that FFP needs to change even if it means spreading the prize money from competition like the Champions League more evenly.
Agreeing that City’s verdict at the Court of Arbitration for Sport is a setback for Bayern’s European chances, Kahn added: “If we look at the financial fair play issue it would be. We are very interested that this financial fair play should be taken more seriously.
“I don’t know the situation exactly now in Man City or Paris St Germain or other clubs but I think we should take this financial fair play in the future more seriously, because if we don’t do that, we don’t need it.
“I think there is a lot of work to do and as you see from the competition in Europe, we need a clear structure and serious financial fair play so that we get more balanced competition.
“If in the future you only have the same clubs winning the Champions League or winning for example Bundesliga or Premier League or other leagues I think it’s getting a little bit boring. So, I think we should do everything to get really strong Financial Fair Play.”
That ignores the fact that such domination is not ‘in the future’ but is the norm in the last 30 years.
Real Madrid and Barcelona have dominated in Spain, and Juventus have won nine Italian titles on the trot.
England was heading down the same route. After Blackburn won it in 1995 – thank to a big cash injection from owner Jack Walker – United and Arsenal shared the next nine titles.
That was broken up when Roman Abramovich took over Chelsea. Since then, the London club’s newfound wealth, followed by City’s revolution, have changed the landscape and made the Premier League the most exciting and unpredictable competition in the world.
In contrast to that United-Arsenal hegemony, we now have a healthy situation where there have been five different winners in the last nine years – and next season has the potential to be another open contest. Kahn accepted that FFP has to change, and maybe allow for a fairer distribution of Champions League proceeds.
Of course, that would still benefit clubs like Bayern, who have much stronger commercial and matchday revenue streams than everyone else.
But it would also help City these days – the latest figures show that the Blues are now fifth in the world in terms of generating revenue, only behind Real Madrid, Barcelona, United and Liverpool.
If you only have the same clubs winning the Champions League for example it becomes boring
Oliver Kahn
Kahn says FFP needs to help foster greater competition in domestic football as well as in Europe, by spreading the Champions League cash around more.
“I think that’s the big question at the moment in football,” he said. “If you look for example in Italy, you have Juventus winning now the ninth title. If you look to Spain, you have always the situation between Real Madrid and Barcelona. I think if you look to England, you have different champions in the last years.
“We, as Bayern Munich, we are always interested in a more-balanced competition in our league but we have to be careful concerning the money because we are not only competing in the German Bundesliga, we as a global brand are also competing in Europe. These are not easy questions but we need to find an answer in the next months.
“There is absolutely no agenda because I think Bayern Munich always wants to compete at the highest level and that is what the audience loves.”