Sport

Bayern success isn't totally guaranteed for the mega-clubs in the Champions League

Kenny Archer

Kenny Archer

Kenny is the deputy sports editor and a Liverpool FC fan.

Bayern Munich didn't turn the world upside down when they won the Champions League final.
Bayern Munich didn't turn the world upside down when they won the Champions League final. Bayern Munich didn't turn the world upside down when they won the Champions League final.

THE ability of a customer to obtain goods or services before payment, based on the trust that payment will be made in the future;

an entry recording a sum received, listed on the right-hand side or column of an account;

publicly acknowledge a contributor's role in the production of something;

add (an amount of money) to an account.

Among those various meanings of the word 'credit' the first is well-known for the regularly successful clubs; the second is meant to be a matter of public record, but can still be obscured by sleight of accountants' hands; the third is rarely heard or done, at least not where it should be; and the fourth is often what matters most.

'Credit where it's due' is an ambiguous phrase in the world of soccer.

For all the criticism of the Champions League, it still involves some element of surprise, a modicum of sporting chance. Some.

Bayern Munich joined Liverpool in becoming champions of Europe for a sixth time when the financial figures would have suggested that Barcelona 'should' have completed that particular double hat-trick.

Money isn't everything, of course: Barca not only topped the Deloitte Football Money League for the first time ever earlier this year, they also headed the table for salaries in world sport, not just world soccer.

However, Bayern decisively put paid to the Catalans' pretensions in the CL quarter-final, humiliatingly hammering them 8-2, Barcelona no doubt delighted that it was only a one-off match.

The year before Liverpool had lifted the trophy after the four-in-a-row dominance of the other mega-rich Spanish club, Real Madrid, had been ended in stunning fashion by Ajax, who are relative paupers in the modern game.

Real's record-breaking run in the Champions League really shouldn't have been that much of a surprise – never mind their prestigious history (they won the first five European Cups), for 11 consecutive years from 2006 to 2016 they had topped that Deloitte rich list.

That 'title' had then been regained for two 'seasons' by Manchester United, who had also regularly been top dogs in that regard since the late Nineties. Barca were always high up on that list too, usually second or third.

So, although there can be a slight time lag, the correlation between a club's wealth and its success in the Champions League is pretty clear. The very richest clubs tended either to win it or at least get to the final.

Amusing as it was that Bayern's starting XI on Sunday evening cost not much more than half a Kylian Mbappe, and less than half a Neymar Jr, the Germans aren't exactly minnows either – indeed for more than a decade Bayern have, on average, tended to be fourth on that list, sometimes even third.

Which all goes to explain why Qatar will keep throwing money at Paris Saint-Germain until it does win the Champions League.

And Abu Dhabi will continue to bankroll Manchester City (having long ago outspent Dubai's paltry investment to overtake and oust Arsenal from England's top four) with the same continental aim in its sights.

Both PSG and Man City have spent massive amounts over the past decade in order to lift themselves to the level of the traditional super-clubs.

Perhaps PSG winning this year would have been more palatable (or less likely to stick in the throat) given the format change to one-legged quarter-finals and semi-finals. Those of us with morals might not have been so hopping mad.

Yet the deaths of so many underpaid, overworked migrant labourers in Qatar is no laughing matter.

Sadly, a very small proportion of soccer supporters seem to be bothered about the source of the money that certain mega-clubs spend, the repressive policies of the states behind some clubs.

Even if you are annoyed, as you should be, it's rather – ahem – rich to slate PSG while praising Bayern as paragons, given that the Munich club has been boosted by Qatari money too…as well as previous questionable sponsorship deals/ club investments from Adidas, Audi, and Allianz (and those are only the companies beginning with the letter 'A' who are linked to the German giants).

A slightly larger proportion of football followers do seem to be concerned, or at least interested, about how much money is spent on a team, and how well, or badly, it is spent.

That 'value for money' argument does attract much debate, online and in pubs (remember them?).

For example, both Manchester clubs have spent plenty over the past decade, City have just spent it far more wisely than United, on both players and managers.

And while Bayern and Liverpool have bought big, they have also bought very well, spending less than many others. Credit the much-maligned RB Leipzig in that regard too.

So while money mostly talks, nay roars, in soccer, the Champions League is the only competition in which success is NOT guaranteed for certain clubs from certain countries.

Bizarrely some sneer at any suggestion that the English Premier League is competitive, even though it has had five different winners over the past decade (in fact over the past eight years, to be precise).

Yet you have to go back twice as long as that, to 2000, to get five different winners in Italy, and to the same season in Spain (when Deportivo La Coruna won, to be followed, twice in the next four years, by Valencia under the wonderful Rafa Benitez).

Somewhat surprisingly, it only requires looking back to 2004 for a fifth different winner in Germany, while France only needs 10 years (back to Marseilles in 2010).

Indeed Ligue 1 used to be extremely competitive, with five different winners from 2008 to 2012 (Lyon, Bordeaux, Marseilles, Lille, and Montpellier) - before PSG took over.

The club of the French capital/Qatar has now won seven of its last eight domestic league titles.

Bayern have collected the last eight Bundesligas, Juventus nine consecutive Serie A crowns.

La Liga is basically a duopoly, Barca and Real winning 15 of the last 16, only Atletico Madrid interrupting them six years ago.

The value of League medals for PSG in France, Bayern in Germany, and Juve in Italy, has depreciated to about the level of a place in the House of Lords – the Champions League is now the only true test of worth for big clubs.