BAYERN FEEDER CLUBS GOING HUNGRY

FOR many months now, it has been a question of when, not if, Schalke would be relegated from the Bundesliga. Their only league win of the season came on January 9, versus Hoffenheim, which prevented them equalling a Bundesliga record of 31 winless games. It was a brief respite. Schalke have amassed just nine points this season, with a goal difference of minus-45. On Sunday, following a 5-1 defeat at midtable Stuttgart, the club sacked the coach, the assistant coach, the fitness coach, the sporting director and the general manager. They are now searching for their fifth manager of the season, including one caretaker, meaning when Peter knabel takes charge against Mainz tonight, as is likely, Schalke will have set a new Bundesliga standard for incompetence. No club has ever had more than four managers in one season. Yet this week two years ago, Schalke were preparing for a Champions League last-16 second leg with Manchester City. They were only 3-2 down from the first game, and had led that 2-1 with five minutes to go. In January 2020, they defeated second-placed Borussia Monchengladbach to go fourth. It was their last league win until Hoffenheim. What happened? Well, Covid happened, obviously. Schalke’s reputation beyond Germany is minimal — they are in many ways the country’s Newcastle, with a huge local following but limited international profile — yet the Veltins-Arena draws an average crowd of more than 60,000, making them the third biggest club in the country, and their membership is larger than any club bar Bayern Munich. Playing in front of an empty stadium has impacted on more than just finances. The power of the football-obsessed city of Gelsenkirchen has been lost — financially, too. Even before the pandemic, Schalke had debts of £175million. And sticking rigidly to the German 50+1 model, in which club members always have majority control, makes them less attractive to investors. There is one other factor. Like every club in Germany, even the biggest, Schalke are a feeder for Bayern Munich. They sold them Manuel Neuer (left) in 2011, provided them with Leon Goretzka in 2018 and with Neuer’s understudy Alexander Nubel last year. Nubel was Schalke’s captain, but is yet to even feature in a league game for Munich. That takes a toll. What is the point of harbouring ambition, of nurturing talent, if it all goes in the service of a rival? Given the crowd numbers, the size and support of clubs such as Schalke, the Bundesliga should be one of the most competitive leagues in the world. And it was, once. Before Munich’s current run of domination, no team had won the Bundesliga more than three years in a row. When it began, in 1963, it had seven different champions in seven years. There were four different champions in the four years between 1977 and 1980, and four in the five years separating 1988 and 1992 and 2007 and 2011. Yet Munich are now chasing their ninth straight title and even their biggest rivals, RB Leipzig, were happy to do a deal for defender Dayot Upamecano, Munich having satisfied his release clause. Is it any wonder, in the circumstances, that clubs lose their way? Schalke will soon join another giant of German football, Hamburg, in Bundesliga 2. The model so often advanced as utopia has a flaw at its core. It kills competition and, in time, that kills clubs, too.