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ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

4:00pm Thursday, 3rd December 2009

With the release this week of Bayern Munich's accounts for 2008-9, we catch a glimpse of another world, far away from the turmoil of parts of the Premier League and the struggling giants of Serie A. It's a world where ownership is secure and certain, and the Club turns a profit every year - and has done so for the past seventeen years. It's a world where no incoming investor can take majority control of a football club from the generality of its member/fans.

Sometimes we in the UK can forget that there is another way to run football. For decades, the German government and the football authorities have managed and administered the game with one over-riding set of assumptions: the nation's football belongs to its people - and the clubs are the 'social property' of their fans and their communities.

It's simple really. Football is clearly recognised, in law and in action, as a national legacy; to be nourished and cherished as a loved child of the folk-family. Its cultural value is set too high to allow the outright predations of international capital to buy and sell 'ownership' of social institutions as precious as football clubs, as if they were trading baked bean factories.

This doesn't prevent significant investment in the clubs by commercial companies - but they can never own it. The Bayern Munich 'members' association is over 150,000 strong and, collectively, they own just over 80% of their club, with adidas and new investor, Audi, holding just under 10% each. Bayern were the fourth richest club in the world in 2008, generating revenues of 295m. The members group (FC Bayern München e.V.) even delivered a profit itself - nearly 1m - independently of their Club. What a thrill it must be for those member/fans to take their seats in the magnificent Allianz stadium and watch their team run out, thinking, 'this belongs to all of us..... forever'.

There are no doubt many fans of Premier League clubs - and elsewhere - who would gladly trade places with their German counterparts these days. Supporters at Liverpool and Newcastle would swap today (probably Man Utd and Arsenal too); those at Portsmouth, West Ham and others long for the settled security and permanence that the German system provides.

Some might point to the fact that German clubs have not been too successful at the highest levels in recent years, and that the 'financial turmoil' at some PL clubs is worth it if it delivers our top teams to regular success in the Champions League. But over the medium-to-long term this advantage may prove a transient one.

Despite two decades of phenomenal success, Man Utd is still a way from encroaching on the record Bayern has as the top level: twenty one league titles and four European Cups. Chelsea and Arsenal are nowhere near it. England has a mere 3,000 or so coaches at Uefa'B' level or above; Germany has around 34,000. And as to success at international levels..... Well England fans can only dream of the success the Germans have achieved.

Time will tell which system is the most robust and which delivers most joy to those who love the game.

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