German game’s gone stale

IN April 2013 it was revealed Borussia Dortmund midfielder Mario Gotze would sign for Bayern Munich. The following November Robert Lewandowski announced he would be making the same journey. Now defender Mats Hummels has followed. The end for the Bundesliga some are calling it. What took them so long? The moment Dortmund had to sell to Munich, the Bundesliga was over. The German title has been shared between those clubs in all bar three seasons since 1998-99. When Dortmund became Munich’s feeder club — that was it. Jurgen Klopp left because he recognised this, the world turns off because they know it, even Pep Guardiola’s trio of titles are downgraded because the Bundesliga is uncompetitive. Dortmund remained in touch for longer this season because they have retained players such as Marco Reus. Yet they kept Reus because Munich decided they had a surplus of attacking players and did not trigger his buy-out clause. Maybe they even made a political decision, to keep Dortmund close enough to afford the illusion of competition. Now they’ve got too close — the title race actually went to May this year — so Munich have gift-wrapped Dortmund’s captain as a present to their new coach, Carlo Ancelotti. It is incredible that only now do opinion formers in Germany consider this the move too far. The Bundesliga has been a dead rubber for several seasons and the only way to rescue it is to allow the same freedom that caused competition inside the Premier League to explode: owner investment. Munich resist it, because with the German game in its present state, it represents the only way they can be challenged.