Bayern Munich is considered as the most successful German club, not only at the domestic competition but also international by grabbing eleven trophies which five of them are from the European champions league. Moreover, FC Bayern is the club that often donates its players to the German national team.
Even so, Bayern Munich is much resented in their own country.
As a description of this resentment, reported by TheGuardian, during the 1998/99 champions league final between Manchester United against Bayern Munich, some Germans claimed they were watching in a bar in Kiel, one of the cities at the very end of Germany.
At that time, they did not focus on watching the match. They instead, played cards, chatted, drank and did activities ignoring the match. They were even unexcited when Bayern won 1-0 and still ignored the match on the screen.
However, in the 91st minute, when the Red Devils caught up the score, people were suddenly getting excited and cheering. Two minutes later, Manchester United striker, Solskjaer, increased the lead for the Red Devils to 1-2. Everyone in the bar danced happily by going up to the table and singing songs while hugging.
Another resentment reflected indirectly in the 2012/13 Champions League final match which brought Bayern against Dortmund. Commonly, German citizens wanted Die Borrusen to be the winners. Dortmund had no problems with German football fans, thus Dortmund was increasingly supported instead.
Those two things indicate that Bayern Munich is much hated by the German public. Due to the German’s hatred of Bayern Munich, there was once the term “Whoever wins later, as long as not Bayern Munich.”
This hatred is inseparable from the dark history of the club called The Bavarians.
Bayern is known as a club whose hobby is hijacking star players at other clubs by offering very high prices. This then makes other clubs were lacking players and going bankruptcy. In the 90s, Bayern had hijacked players from the club FC Karlsruhe.
A few years later, Mario Gotze, Robert Lewandowski, and Mats Hummels were also snatched by their fierce rivals, Borussia Dortmund. Manuel Neuer from Schalke and David Alaba from Hoffenheim were snatched following those three. There are many more players who were hijacked by Bayern. For this reason, the fans of other teams have resented Bayern.
In Germany, there is the term Bayern-Dusel, which means unworthy luck for Bayern Munich. The purpose of the unworthy luck here is the period in which Bayern underwent a golden period in 1970.
At that time, several of Bayern’s victorious matches were achieved thanks to a late goal near the second half. This was where the German people judge the title of Bayern’s victory was very inappropriate since it was based on luck.
Bayern Munich is the richest club in Germany. Bavaria is located in the state of Bavaria which is also the richest state among other German states.
In 2011, Bavaria subsidized 3.6 million euros or 45 billion rupiah to other poor German states, such as Berlin. This is not the first time since 1986 Bavaria has subsidized other German states in the financial crisis.
At a time when countries in the European Union were experiencing a crisis, Bavaria was the only one who voiced aid campaigns to countries that were experiencing crises, such as Greece and Cyprus.
There is a psychological problem that causes Bayern Munich to be hated by the German people. One of them is because the club is a pride for Bavaria who has a strong tribal understanding of their cultural identity.
Before joining the German Empire, and still being the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1918, Bavarian people often mocked the Prussian people (the German Empire).
However, after starting to join the German Empire as a privileged territory, tribalism was gone. In fact, in the early 21st century, Bavaria helped several German federation countries that were in crisis.
It has also been done by Bayern Munich. In the last two decades, Bayern has helped several clubs in the Bundesliga who were in crisis. In 2003, they donated funds to FC St. Pauli in which they refused to tell the amount. They also lent funds worth 2 million euros or Rp 25 billion to Dortmund who had been on the verge of financial collapse.
Another reason that makes Bayern not so popular is due to the arrogance of owning dozens of trophies. Bayern’s dominance in Germany is very strong. They often beat their opponents nonstop, take points, and score goals, until their competitors fell and surrendered.
For example in the Bundesliga, Bayern seemed unbearable. They often came out as the champion with a lot of points compared with the second place.
In terms of the trophy, as mentioned earlier, Bayern is one of the most successful clubs in history as they have won the elite competition between European clubs for 5 times. Facing such success, hatred is inevitable. As Cristiano Ronaldo said, “Your love makes me strong. Your hatred makes me unstoppable.” (Quoted from Sportskeeda).
Germans’ hatred of Bayern is further strengthened based on a recent survey conducted by TU Braunschweig in 2018 ago. They surveyed the club that was most liked in Germany. In the survey, TU Braunschweig involved 4,400 respondents aged 18 to 69 years.
As a result, SC Freiburg is at the top of the 36 Bundesliga 1 and Bundesliga 2 clubs. Meanwhile, Bayern Munchen is in the last position for the club that is most preferred. They are even more hated than RB Leipzig.
So that’s all, Football-lovers. That’s some of the reasons Bayern Munich are hated in their own country. If you have other reasons, please write in the comments below!
