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haven’t been the same force, losing players to Bayern and other biggies of European football.

Bayern have snapped up Robert Lewandowski, Mario Goetze, who has since returned, and Mats Hummels from Dortmund over

the last few seasons. What has also hurt Dortmund are the departures of Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Ilkay Guendogan in 2016-17 and Ousmane Dembele and Pierre-emerick Aubameyang last season.

Bayern’s domination, though, hasn’t harmed Brand Bundesliga. Clubs record profits, the average attendance of over 44,000 is the highest among the top-five European leagues and at 25.2, its average age is among the lowest. The problem is keeping those youngsters.

In the transfer market Bayern too are finding it difficult to compete. While they have successfully raided Bundesliga clubs, they have often been outbid by

European giants. Bayern’s record signing is Frenchman Tolisso for whom they paid Lyon slightly over €40 million (₹317.9 crore now) last season. Forget the big guns, Everton paid more for Gylfi Sigurdsson last season.

Bayern Munich chief executive Karl-heinz Rummenigge has asked the Bundesliga to scrap the 50-plus-one rule, which effectively bars big investors from taking over. Rummenigge again spoke about this during the club’s

US tour last month, saying that the rule was preventing Bundesliga teams from being competitive in Europe.

Fiscal management and success in Europe, it seems, are mutually exclusive.