FC Bayern Forum

Bayern Munich was founded in 1900 by members of a Munich gymnastics club. The club played its first games in the regional Bayern league. Bayern's first success came in 1926 in the form of the championship of southern Germany, an achievement repeated two years later. Their first national honour was gained in 1932, winning the German championship by defeating Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 in the final. The advent of the Hitler regime put an abrupt end to Bayern's development. The president and the coach.

After the war Bayern became a member of the southern conference of the German first division, which was split five ways at that time, the Oberliga Süd. Bayern struggled, and in 1955 suffered the ignominy of relegation. The following season the club returned to the Oberliga and even won the German Cup for the first time, beating Fortuna Düsseldorf 1-0 in the final. The club progressed to become one of the better sides of the league, but struggled financially, verging on bankruptcy at the end of the 1950s. Manufacturer Roland Endler provided the necessary funds and was rewarded with four years at the helm of the club. In 1963 the Oberligas in Germany were consolidated to one national league, the Bundesliga. Bayern were denied membership, but gained promotion two years later, fielding a team with young talents like Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller and Sepp Maier - who would later be collectively referred to as the axis.

In their first Bundesliga season Bayern finished third and also won the German Cup, qualifying for the European Cup Winners Cup, which they won in the following year in a dramatic final against Scottish club Rangers, when Franz "the Bull" Roth scored the decider in a 1-0 extra time victory. In 1967 Bayern retained the German Cup, but slow overall progress saw a new coach, Branko Zebec take over. He replaced Bayern's offensive style of play with a more disciplined approach, and in doing so achieved the first league and cup double in Bundesliga history, using only 13 players throughout the season.

1970 saw a new coach, Udo Lattek, taking charge. After winning the cup in his first season he led Bayern to their third German championship. The deciding match in the 1971-72 season against Schalke 04 was the first match in the brand new Olympic Stadium, and was also the first live televised match in Bundesliga history. Bayern swept Schalke away 5-1 and thus claimed the title, also setting several records, including points gained and goals scored. Bayern also won the next 2 championships, but the zenith was the triumph in the 1974 European Champions Cup final against Atlético Madrid, which Bayern won 4-0 after a replay. In the following season the team was unsuccessful domestically, but defended their European title by defeating Leeds United in the final when "Bull" Roth and Müller secured victory with their late goals. A year later in Glasgow, AS Saint-Étienne were defeated by another Franz Roth goal and Bayern became the third club to win the trophy in 3 consecutive years. The final trophy won by Bayern in this era was the Intercontinental Cup, in which Brazilian club Cruzeiro Belo Horizonte were defeated over two legs.

The 1980s were a period of off-field turmoil for Bayern, with many changes in personnel and financial problems. On the field, the Bundesliga title was won in 1980 and 1981, but two trophyless seasons followed, after which former coach Udo Lattek returned. Bayern won the 1984 cup final, then went on to win 5 championships in 6 seasons, including a double in 1986. However, European success was elusive during the decade; Bayern only managed to claim the runners-up spot in the European Cup in 1982 and 1987. Bayern's form dipped after their 1990 championship win, the club finishing just five points above the relegation places in 1991/92. Success returned when Franz Beckenbauer took over for the 2nd half of the 1993-94 season, winning the Championship again after a 3 year gap. Beckenbauer was then appointed club president, but his successors as coach did not meet expectations. During this time Bayern's players frequently appeared in the gossip pages of the press rather than the sports pages, resulting in the nickname FC Hollywood. Franz Beckenbauer returned as coach, and led his team to victory in the 1996 UEFA Cup, beating Bordeaux in the final.

From 1998-2004 Bayern were coached by Ottmar Hitzfeld, who became the most successful Bayern coach of all time. In Hitzfeld's first season, Bayern won the Bundesliga and came agonisingly close to winning the Champions League, losing 2-1 to Manchester United conceding two goals in injury time after leading for most of the match. The 1999-2000 season resulted in Bayern winning their third league and cup double. A third consecutive Bundesliga title followed in 2001, won in a finish on the final day of the league season. Days later, Bayern won the Champions League for the fourth time after a 25 year gap, defeating Valencia CF on penalties. The 2001-02 season finished trophyless for Bayern in the Bundesliga, but they won the Intercontinental Cup for the second time. But a season later Bayern won their fourth double, winning the league title by a record margin. Hitzfeld's reign ended in ignominious fashion in 2004, with Bayern underperforming, including a cup defeat by 2nd division Alemannia Aachen.

Prior to the start of the 2005-06 season, Bayern moved from the Olympic Stadium to the new Allianz Arena, which the club shares with TSV 1860. In summer 2006 TSV 1860 Munich had to sell its shares of the Allianz Arena to Bayern Munich due to a financial crisis. Bayern Munich now is the single owner of the Arena but both clubs hope that TSV 1860 Munich will repurchase its parts as soon as possible.

The current Bayern manager is Ottmar Hitzfeld, who returned to Munich in January 2007 after Felix Magath was sacked. In his first term at Bayern between 1998 and 2004 he won 4 Bundesliga titles, two DFB Pokals and the 2000-01 UEFA Champions League.

During the 2006-2007 season, Bayern have suffered a number of setbacks. Apart from only finishing fourth in the league, they have also failed to qualify for the Champions League, lost in the DFB Cup and the League Cup, garnering them with no titles whatsoever. A number of injuries also hit them as Lukas Podolski, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Valerien Ismael, Lucio, Willy Sagnol, Mehmet Scholl and Ali Karimi were all not 100% during the year. They finished fourth with 65 points. In the recent UEFA Champions League, they fell at the hands of eventual cup winners AC Milan 2-4 on aggregate. The UEFA Cup will be their main European campaign this season.

Bayern Munich have been in a busy mood during the summer, as they seek to build a stronger team. Owen Hargreaves completed a transfer to Manchester United, Claudio Pizarro left on a free transfer to Chelsea, Ali Karimi is moved to Qatar while Hasan Salihamidzic has agreed to a contract with Juventus. Mehmet Scholl ended his career with the Bavarian side retiring having scored in the last game of the season.

Bayern Munich today have introduced a new home kit design featuring white hoops on a red background. Along with this new image, a new team has been in construction. With 6 confirmed total summer signings: Jan Schlaudraff from Alemannia Aachen, Hamit Altintop from Schalke 04, Jose Ernesto Sosa from Estudiantes de la Plata, Marcell Jansen from Borussia Monchengladbach, Luca Toni from ACF Fiorentina and Franck Ribery from Olympique Marseille, the fallen Bundesliga giants are plotting to break ground once again this season. Ze Roberto of Santos FC is also set to rejoin the club. Finally, Miroslav Klose of Werder Bremen, joins Bayern this season, after a contract agreement. On what is reported to be a summer spending spree, Bayern have proven that they can compete financially with the wealthy European teams, with outstanding profit during a losing campaign and a completely different approach to transfer markets. All in all, their spending spree on all their winter and summer signings amount to an estimated $94 million.

Before 1925 Bayern had played at various premises, one of their earlier grounds sporting the town's first grandstand.

From 1925 they shared the Grünwalder Stadion with 1860 Munich. Until World War II the stadium was owned by 1860 Munich, and is still colloquially known as Sechzger ("Sixtier") Stadium nowadays. It was destroyed during the war, and efforts for refurbishment ended up as a patchwork. Conclusions about its state can be drawn from the fact that the stadium did not host a single German international match after WWI, despite Munich being Germany's third largest city. Bayern's record crowds according to conflicting sources, were either 48000 in 1948, or 52000 in 1961 in matches against 1. FC Nürnberg. In the Bundesliga era the stadium had a maximum capacity of 44000 which was reached on several occasions. As was the case at most of this period's stadia, the vast majority of the stadium was given over to terracing.



For the Olympic Games of 1972 the city of Munich built the Olympic Stadium. The stadium, still highly impressive with its architectural lightness, was inaugurated in the last Bundesliga match of the 1971-72 season, drawing a capacity crowd of 79,000, which was reached on numerous occasions. The stadium was, in its early days, considered to be one of the foremost stadia in the world and played host to numerous major finals, such as that of 1974 FIFA World Cup. In the years to follow the stadium underwent several modifications, such as an increase in seating space from approximately 50% to ca. 66%. Eventually the stadium had a capacity of 63,000 for national matches, and 59,000 for international occasions, e.g. European Cup competitions. Many people, however, began to feel that the stadium was too cold in winter, with half the audience exposed to the weather due to lack of cover. A further complaint was the distance between the spectators and the pitch, the stadium betraying its track and field heritage. Modification of the stadium proved impossible as it would have interfered with its heritage listed architecture.

In 2002 Bayern and TSV 1860 jointly undertook the construction of a new stadium, designed purely for football resulting in the modern Allianz Arena, located on the northern outskirts of Munich. It has been in use since the beginning of the 2005-06 season, while its initial capacity of 66,000 fully covered seats has since been increased for matches on national level to 69,900 by transforming 3,000 seats in a ratio 2:1 to standing places. The most interesting feature of the stadium is the translucent outer layer, which can be illuminated in different colours for impressive effects. The first player to score a goal in it was Owen Hargreaves against Borussia Mönchengladbach in their 3-0 win.

FC Bayern Munich training facilities, for both the professional and the Junior Team, are located at the Bayern Munich Headquarters. There are four grass pitches, one of which has undersoil heating, one artificial grass field and a multi-functional sports hall.

The players' quarters, which opened in 1990, offers a big dressing room, a massage room, a doctor's surgery room, a relaxation bath, a whirlpool, a state-of-the-art rehabilitation centre and a conference room with screening facilities for video analysis.

One visible component of this facility is the club's Youth House, which houses up to 13 rising young stars from outside the city, working on their development as footballers as part of Bayern's highly successful Junior Team. The value of this particular facility has been demonstrated by Bayern's capture of Germany's senior youth championship in 2001 and 2002, and the emergence of stars such as Paolo Guerrero and Owen Hargreaves, both former residents of the Youth House.

German Champions: 20
1932, 1968/69, 1971/72, 1972/73, 1973/74, 1979/80, 1980/81, 1984/85, 1985/86, 1986/87, 1988/89, 1989/90, 1993/94, 1996/97, 1998/99, 1999/2000, 2000/01, 2002/03, 2004/05, 2005/06


German Cup: 13
1957, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006


League Cup: 6
1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2007

German Supercup: 3
1982 (Unofficial), 1987, 1990

Intercontinental Cup: 2
1976, 2001


UEFA Champions League/European Cup: 4
1974, 1975, 1976, 2001


European Cup Winners Cup: 1
1967


UEFA Cup: 1
1996

Trofeo Santiago Bernabéu: 3
1979, 1980, 2002

Trofeo Internacional Ciudad de Terrassa: 1
1972

- Bayern Munich is renowned for its well-organised ultra scene. The most prominent groups are the *Schickeria München, the Red Munichs '89, the Südkurve '73, the Munichmaniacs 1996, the Service Crew Munich, the Red Angels, the Tavernen Crew München and the Red Sharks.

- FCB has a traditional feud against local rivals TSV 1860 Munich and 1.FC Nürnberg, a former friendship with VfL Bochum has fizzled out.

- Stern des Südens (Star of the south) is the chant which fans sing at FCB home games

1932, first DFB cup win 2-0 against Eintract.

sorry if i missed read, do u know what is bayern logo means ? and what do u call 4 fcbayern fan? like another club (milanisti, etc),

vielen dank
ps : sorry ma english not so well..

The blue and white diamonds are from the Bavarian (Bayern) state flag. A little local flavor. Bayern fans I believe are called "die roten," or the reds. In one song the fans refer to themselves as "die Bayern" as well, so I guess those are it. There may be others though.

FCBinNYC wrote:The blue and white diamonds are from the Bavarian (Bayern) state flag. A little local flavor. Bayern fans I believe are called "die roten," or the reds. In one song the fans refer to themselves as "die Bayern" as well, so I guess those are it. There may be others though.

Yea thats it , the reds , MUNCHEN IST ROT !
The ultras are called Schickeria Munchen .

You can call us (The Bavarians) as well, right?
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The European Cup final 1974


In their first Bundesliga season Bayern finished third and also won the German Cup. This qualified them for the following year's European Cup Winners Cup, which they won in a dramatic final against Scottish club Rangers, when Franz "the Bull" Roth scored the decider in a 1–0 extra time victory. In 1967 Bayern retained the German Cup, but slow overall progress saw a new coach, Branko Zebec take over. He replaced Bayern's offensive style of play with a more disciplined approach, and in doing so achieved the first league and cup Double in Bundesliga history, using only 13 players throughout the season.


Udo Lattek

Udo Lattek took charge in 1970. After winning the cup in his first season he led Bayern to their third German championship. The deciding match in the 1971–72 season against Schalke 04 was the first match in the new Olympic Stadium, and was also the first live televised match in Bundesliga history. Bayern beat Schalke 5–1 and thus claimed the title, also setting several records, including points gained and goals scored. Bayern also won the next two championships, but the zenith was their triumph in the European Cup final against Atlético Madrid, which Bayern won 4–0 after a replay. During the following years the team was unsuccessful domestically, but defended their European title by defeating Leeds United in the final when Roth and Müller secured victory with late goals. A year later in Glasgow, AS Saint-Étienne were defeated by another Roth goal and Bayern became the third club to win the trophy in three consecutive years. The final trophy won by Bayern in this era was the Intercontinental Cup, in which they defeated Brazilian club Cruzeiro Belo Horizonte over two legs. The rest of the decade was a time of change and saw no further titles for Bayern. In 1977 Franz Beckenbauer left for New York Cosmos and in 1979 Sepp Maier and Uli Hoeneß retired while Gerd Müller joined the Fort Lauderdale Strikers.

Does anyone know the significance of Oct 1979 for FC Bayern Munchen? I came across a signed telstar 1974 world cup soccer ball signed by what looks like the whole team. On the front of the ball is the name of the club, along with "OKT. 1979". Anyone have any idea of it's significance or value?

I didn't know where to put this, but I found this incredible video and I just had to share it with you all.