Coming from Australia. I've lived in Portsmouth and now live in Hannover. The Bundesliga is better regarding prices,number of goals and general attendance. I have never been to a bigger EPL stadium so I think the atmosphere there would be equal to most of the Bundesliga teams.

The quality of football isn't so bad, it can at times be slow, it is certainly, much slower than the EPL but nevertheless gains ground with the fan culture than exists in Germany.

I'd personally prefer a Hannover 96 game over any mid to lower table EPL match.


What do you think about the FourFourTwo article Bundesliga Foundation for Success?
Germany's Bundesliga is by no means the best in Europe. It does not have the biggest stars - mainly because it does not pay the sky-high wages to attract them - it does not play the most attractive football and it is certainly not the most talked about.

Have your say.

Nice article FFT - In Australia, we are starting to talk now of what role models there are out there, for our A-League. The J-League was one from the start, the MLS quite logically, gets a mention, but now people are looking at the Bundesliga. Although it's, by and large, a one code football market, your article just touches on some things we can strive to follow, model our domestic league and even wider scene on, in the future.

BTW Mesut Ozil has 14 caps?! A Socceroo who can take a couple years to get 14 caps and by then, he would be mid 20s and considered an 'experienced' NT player! I suppose that is partly a carry over from our lack of fixtures from the Oceania days, we certainly play alot more now, but still, it can take a while down here to get a dozen caps - So Ozil's 14 International caps, since his debut in February 09, is far from anything to sneeze at, it's quite impressive for any player, let alone a 21 year old!

BTW To emphasise my point - See Dario Vidosic who made his debut mid last year and has featured fairly regularly since - 7 caps. Mile Jedinak made his debut in early 08, only has 12 caps. Richard Garcia, late 08 debut, 10 caps (I know he had long term injury BTW). Rhys WIlliams debut June 09, 3 caps. Scott McDonald has only managed 16 caps since his debut in early 06!

If Bayern Munich won the Champions League this season it would have seen the Bundesliga overtake Serie A on UEFA's ranking which determines how many teams are entered into the Champions League. So it is not comfortably fourth and Italy is not easily third. The Bundesliga has also had the highest goals per game average out of those leagues quoted in the article since 1989, and any argument that the Bundesliga isn't strong resulting in higher goals - the Bundesliga still had the highest goals per game average when they had the Champions League and Uefa Cup winners. I also think they have had a greater variety of teams that have won the league and had more championships decided on the last round of fixtures than those leagues.

I watch the bundesliga alot on setanta and i must say i rate it alot higher than then the Serie A, the teams play alot more exciting football, i also prefer to watch it instead of the la liga but that is only due to i find the la liga to have alot more acting and diving in it not cause of the la ligas standard of play. i myself follow hsv. this next game between Germany and Argentina should be the world cup final. Very nice article 442 love it

What's this? Journalism? Well who'd have thunk it?!

What i'm trying to say is, nice article :)

How about Dutch training and coaching methods inside a Germany administrative model...... Something I have advocated in the past, so Im not just jumping on the bandwagon.

Not to mention the fact the Bundesliga is a really fair league. The title is thrown up in the air for nearly all clubs to win it. in fact last season saw tradtional powerhouses Bayern Munich take top spot on the ladder at one stage for the first time in 5 or so years. something unthinkable if it was the traditionally boring EPL with only 2 or 3 genuine contenders.

I think its time to swap from the dutch system to the Germany system lmao.

They have won 3 world cups and are a good chance to make it four.

i much prefer the german league to the dutch league

we can learn a lot from the germans, i reckon they would be a better role model then the dutch

how about getting a german coach next?

Franz Beckenbauer

As of the start of the 2010/11 UEFA Champions league & Europa League, the Bundesliga will be comfortably ranked 3rd in Europe. The entrants from Serie A will have to win up to 15-20 games more than the entrants from the Bundesliga to hold their position at 3rd.

By that logic, lets get a Brazlian or Italian coach. :roll:

the dutch sytem of total football is the best....

but the german system of how to run a league is the best way to get the most out of total football.

Prior to the 2006 World Cup there were grave concerns and critcims about the quality of German national players due to the high proportion of imports in the Bundesliga. Bayern's success is till built on the performance of imports. Obviuosly the steps for youth development that they took 10 years ago were not yet filtering to senior levels. Now they are, and look at the results. The English need to do the same. We are about 3 years into our our Dutch-led development system. Hopefully in the next 7-10 years we will reap the rewards too.

that is because he was always "injured" till it became apparent that we would be going to the world cup, then his health got so much better.

Thats mainly due to the Australian 2006 squad playing on and not retiring. Its the Grella's, Chippers, Bresciano's, Kewell's, Schwarzer's keeping the younger players out. The next coach has a big decision to make as to whether he persists with the old guard for the Asia Cup or develop these younger players with a view to 2014.

Actually a german champions league would of only brougth that move foward 1 year. Based on crowds and performance in international competions after next season Bundesliga will OFFICIALLY hold italy's spot and gain thier extra champions league place.

Its not the older players fault that they keep getting selected. And its not like they are so old that they have nothing to offer.
If you were a professional 30-31 yr old, would you give up your deserved world cup spot so some kids, who may or may not be good enough anyway, can have a few more caps????? :roll:

Edited by villaboy: 29/6/2010 11:45:34 AM

do we even have a youth development system that is of any standard or even a system or is our youth league our system

That is what Versleijan (?) is supposed to be doing with our underage and AIS squads.

Actually, the Bundesliga was only 1 match away from overtaking Italy, and that was if Hamburg beat Fulham in the Europa League, regardless of the CL outcome. Germany is a much better league than Italy now. It's really only Inter that have saved them so far.

but now jose is gone inter will go down and so will italian football

do u see the humour with italians and going down

Great article. And on the ball 100%

If we had a system where ticket prices were much lower than all the competing codes and every club had a genuine academy football would take massive strides in Australia.

Far better to get 30,000 people through at $15 dollars then 15,000 people through at $30... In fact, longer term even if you had to lose a bit of money to get more people through the gate it would get you long term supporters, more tv viewers and more merchandise sales... Cheap tickets= dominiation.

So where do you get that I blame the older players? Fact is the next generation hasn't been good enough to win the place over the incumbants. Until now. IMO, All of the above players should bow out after the Asia Cup, some sooner.

But its also interesting that Germany COULD have gone with an older squad and no-one would have questioned that if they did, they had experience players still in the prime of their careers, but they deliberately chose a young squad. It remains to be seen if they young Germans can perform now that they are in the pointy end of the tournament.

Excellent article. The Bundesliga is underrated and I've very much enjoyed coverage on Ten's ONE. I was particularly annoyed at Mark Bosnich during the season mouthing off against it, clearly without any real knowledge. Breath of fresh air after the too-suffocating EPL.

I like it too. Much better to watch than Serie A.

An interesting thing about how the league was run was thats stats on wage bill compared to running the club.

Bundesliga was 51% of revenue on wages
EPL was 67% of revenue on wages

A League Cap is about $2.25M and approx to run a club is about $8M - $10M

that leaves A league clubs with 25% on wages and the rest on admin.

Now that just may be because there wages are very high or because they run the club better. They also have academics reserve leagues cover there own travel costs etc.

I would like to see the Bundesliga take a CL spot from Serie A too.

"No teams in the German top flight are in danger of entering administration"

Schalke are on the brink.

Furthermore, their Ruhr rivals Dortmund pretty much went bankrupt 3-4 years ago.

Sorry if this has already been mentioned by someone, can't be bothered reading through all the comments...

Ummmm...... Perhaps it was your opening.

:lol: