As far as the Bundesliga is concerned, there is another crucial European week ahead. Both the Champions League and the UEFA Cup may currently be in their group stages, where even a resounding defeat won't get you eliminated, but that makes little difference for German football. We need every goal, every draw, every win we can get.
That's because the Bundesliga is in grave danger of losing yet another place in Uefa's country rankings. There is even a distinct possibility that Germany will, in the not-too-distant future, send only one team directly to the Champions League and another to the qualifying rounds- and it could happen as early as 2008.
If you don't believe the mighty Bundesliga could be overtaken by such comparatively weak leagues as the Portugese, the Dutch or, gasp, the Romanian, just have a look at past years.
As we entered the 1980s, there was little doubt that the Bundesliga was the strongest of the European leagues. English clubs may have dominated the European Cup, but we are talking about general competitiveness here, and for that you only need to look at the 1979-80 season, when all four semi-finalists in the Uefa Cup came from Germany. There was also a fifth Bundesliga club in the quarter-finals, Kaiserslautern, who were eliminated by Bayern.
But then the Serie A lifted its ban on foreigners, and since most Italian clubs are run by corporations or wealthy businessmen, money quickly began to talk. For the following decade, and a good part of the one after that, Italy led Germany in Uefa's country rankings, based on points accumulated over a five-year period.
In the mid-1990s, Germany were suddenly out of the top three for the first time ever, behind Spain, Italy and France, thus losing a starting place in the Uefa Cup. Yet that seemed to be nothing more than a brief scare - the heroics of Bayern, Schalke and Dortmund in 1996 and 1997 quickly set matters straight again. Or so people thought- but it was a false new dawn.
By 1998, Germany were in second place in Uefa's country rankings, behind Spain. But in 2000, the Bundesliga fell to third place, behind both Spain and Italy. In 2001, England - whose league had only been seventh-best as late as 1996 - overtook Germany too. And by 2005, the Bundesliga found itself in an embarrassing fifth place, now behind France as well.
If you think this column is now heading into the general direction of cultural criticism - wrong. I have explained why there is less money in the German game time and time again. We have to accept that there is really no way for the Bundesliga to compete with Spain, Italy and England unless things are radically changed, either at our end or at theirs. However, that our clubs are having a hard time competing with teams from these countries is not the problem.
Take last season. Mainz and then Schalke being eliminated from the Uefa Cup by Sevilla and Middlesbrough respectively, we can live with that. Because, as hard as it may be to believe this, even Boro's coffers are much deeper than those of their Swabian opponents. The £7.5 million Boro paid for Ayegbeni Yakubu would have broken Stuttgart's transfer record by more than £3 million!
No, the problem is the other results. Leverkusen were knocked out in the first round by CSKA Sofia, then Rapid Bucharest stopped both Hertha and Hamburg even before the quarter finals. Such setbacks, it has to be stated, are by no means aberrations - they have become the norm.
In the 2004-05 season, Belgian and Ukranian teams eliminated Bundesliga representatives from the Uefa Cup. A year earlier, the complete German contingent in this competition was wiped out by teams such as Sochaux (France), Teplice (Czech Republic), Brondby (Denmark), Dnipropetrovsk (Ukraine) and Grodzisk Wielkopolski (Poland).
And all the signs are that this season's campaign will follow the same path. Hertha have already bitten the dust against Odense, while Schalke stumbled over Nancy. 'Half of the Bundesliga clubs are desperate to qualify for Europe - and then they don't play any role there,' says former German international Thomas Berthold. He also predicts that only Bayern and Bremen will still be active in one of the two Uefa club competitions once 2007 comes around. That, you have to admit grudgingly, isn't pessimism but realism.
Of course the main question is why our clubs have taken up the nasty habit of repeatedly losing against teams they should, with all due repsect, be able to cope with. Don't expect an answer from me, as I'm just as unable to explain this as the players, their coaches or the fans are.
Schalke's supporters came close to rioting after their side's pitiful performance in Nancy. And 'Kicker' magazine reported that one disillusioned fan told the club officials: 'You know how we all hate Bayern Munich. But we have to admit that s*** like this doesn't happen at Bayern!'
Whatever the reasons, the repercussions could be painful. As we speak, Germany trails France, the fourth-placed country in the Uefa rankings, by 9.3 points. This is a gap we cannot bridge in the forseeable future, which becomes clear when you have a look at the pack chasing the Bundesliga: Portugal is just a shade over one point behind Germany, Romania 2.4 points and Holland 4.1 points.
The only good thing is that we still have five teams in the competitions, as many as Holland but more than Portugal and Romania. However, strength in numbers isn't worth a nickel as long as those teams don't collect points for the Bundesliga. You hear that, Hamburg?
The three Romanian starters, for instance, have already accumulated almost twice as many points for their country rankings as the five German sides have. And this is no one-season fluke. Over the past three years, Romania has climbed from 25th place to 7th. I guess we have to start rooting for Real Madrid, Besiktas Istanbul and Hapoel Tel Aviv, who play Steaua, Dinamo and Rapid Bucharest this week. It could be our last hope.
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very important issue there. We know there is less money in Germany however there should be enough quality to at least do well in the Uefa cup.
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