- Stefan Effenberg wants to end Bayern Munich’s dominance of the Bundesliga
- The Bavarian club are 18 points clear and strolling towards a sixth-straight title
- Effenberg plans to split the Bundesliga into two separate groups of nine teams
Former Bayern Munich star Stefan Effenberg has revealed a radical new concept that will help bring an end to the Bavarian club’s dominance in the Bundesliga and revitalise a stale division.
After a wayward start to the season that resulted in Carlo Ancelotti losing his job, Bayern Munich are now strolling to a sixth-straight German title with an 18-point lead over the rest of the division.
There seems to be no end in sight to the current monopoly in the Bundesliga, which is why Effenberg, who won three successive titles with Bayern Munich between 1999 and 2001, believes the entire division needs a redesign.
Bayern Munich’s dominance in the Bundesliga has seen them claim five straight titles
The Bavarian club are strolling towards a sixth-straight title with an 18-point lead at the top
Speaking in his column for T-Online, the 49-year-old outlaid a plan that would see the 18 teams split into two groups of nine at the beginning of the season. These teams would then play each other home and away before the Christmas break.
Then, the top four teams from each group plus the best fifth-placed team would form Group A, who play each other home and away in the second half of the season in a fight for the title.
Group B would contain the worst performing nine teams from the first phase in a straightforward battle against relegation.
Stefan Effenberg, who starred for Bayern Munich at the turn of the century, wants reform
‘The championship can not be decided in February or March, even a preliminary decision will hardly exist until then, because all clubs start again in January with zero points,’ said Effenberg.
‘It promises tremendous excitement twice, first in the fight for the qualification for Group 1, then in the fight for championship or against relegation.’
No team other than Bayern Munich has won the Bundesliga title since Jurgen Klopp led Borussia Dortmund to back-to-back titles between 2010 and 2012, but even that was a temporary slip from the juggernaut of German football.
Indeed, once they win this season’s title, Bayern Munich will have finished top in 14 of the last 20 campaigns, winning the double (German Cup) nine times and the treble (Champions League, German Cup) once.
Effenberg won three Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich, but says the division is going stale