Is the Bundesliga the best league in the world?

Football, in the past decade or two, has grown into a gigantic industry. The English Premier League has broken all barriers and has reached into the houses of billions. The annual TV telecast earning of the Premier League is a staggering 1.94 billion euros. Oil-rich owners are buying football clubs and are turning them into their little projects. Transfers fees exceeding 50 Million Euros are common-place these days. Despite all this, the Bundesliga stands tall devoid of all these antics.

The Bundesliga – where fans are given true importance

The average ticket price for a Bundesliga game still remains at around 17 Euros – which is almost half of what it costs to see an EPL game. The away fans attending the Bundesliga games are given free rail travel. Last year, the average attendance in the Bundesliga accounted to 42,700 – which is around 8,000 higher than the EPL and almost 15,000 higher than the La Liga or Serie A.

The total revenue of the Bundesliga stands at $2.7 Billion. This amount is beaten only by the EPL ($3.2 Billion), but given EPL’s reach and income, the difference of 500 million looks very minimal. While the EPL, La Liga and Serie A report around 45-60 % income from media rights, the Bundesliga reports only 25% revenue from media rights. The actual income of the Bundesliga teams come from the clever marketing and commercial deals, which amounts of 50%, and their ticket sales, which accounts to around 25%.

Barcelona‘s gross debt stands at around $483 Million and they posted a loss of around $25 million last season and $85 million the season before despite doing well in almost all competitions. Bayern Munich, on the other hand, have reported an annual profit for the 19th season in a row. The last time a German team won the Champions League was in 2001 and despite that, most German teams are reporting annual profits. So, to put it in simple words, the Bundesliga is probably the only financially fit league in the world.

A 7.4 % increase in profits in a year is a figure that is simple staggering

Although the overall income of the Bundesliga stands at $2.7 Billion, 7.4% higher than the previous year, the annual increase in player wages increased only by a mere 0.9%. In the Bundesliga, the wages are decided based on player performances and not emotions. If a player demands wages that will threaten the stability of the club and the ownership, he is usually shipped off. Still, top names remain in the league which shows the level of understanding between the players and the clubs.

Then there is the case of ownership. Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour may never set foot in Germany and buy a club because in Germany, there is a 50+1 rule, which means that the Club board members must retain at least 51% of the ownership of the Club. This rule may be relaxed if an individual or a company supports a club for more than 20 years (that is what happened with Volkswagen and VfL Wolfsburg).

To most of us, the Bundesliga means Bayern Munich. But Bayern are nowhere near being a dominant force when comes to winning the league title. In the past 10 years, six different clubs have claimed the League title. In the same period of time, only three teams have won the La Liga and only four teams have won the EPL, which is a testimony to the amount of competition that prevails in the German League.

Then there is the love of football among the youth of Germany. According to the agreement made by the German FA and Bundesliga teams, each top flight team must establish a football academy. Among the 23 players selected for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, 19 of them came from these academies. Around $80 million is spent on these academies in Germany. In contrast, the English teams spend nearly $100 million on youth academies, but only 1% of the boys who join these academies turn into professionals.

If you still insist that the quality of football should be measured by actual footballing success then here it goes. Chelsea and Manchester City, the defending European and English Champions with their literally unending supply of transfer funds, crashed out in the first round of the Champions League. Borussia Dortmund, despite losing key man Shinji Kagawa to Manchester United, topped the Group D – which was considered a ‘Group of Death’ – in the Champions League. Three German teams still remain in the competition with a very good chance of progressing further.

A $150,000 per week salary is now very common in England and Spain. But is it really worth all the fuss? Is football a game or a business? Should everyone follow Germany’s example? Let us know in the comments section.