Munich Derby - Bayern vs 1860 Munich

This article was generously provided to ClubFootball by the British Council, which operates in China as the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy.

"It's one of the highlights of the season for all of us - players, fans and the whole city." The speaker: Bayern Munich's Ollie Kahn, the "Goalkeeper of the Year". The subject: the Munich derby, the clash between Bayern and 1860 Munich, in Germany.
 
Saturday's (15 February) derby - the 197th to be exact - was no exception. Rivalry and interest was as intense as ever. And, despite Siberian temperatures, 64,000 packed the city's Olympic stadium to see it.
 
Normally the derby is a sell-out with a 69,000 crowd. Snow and icy temperatures cooled demand for tickets this time. Gerd Müller, for one, was shocked to find empty seats. "I can't even remember when that last happened," said Bayern's legendary shooting star of the seventies.
 
But the cold did nothing to dampen the excitement. The fans were as noisy and as ever, taunting each other from separate ends of the stadium. Much of it was good-natured. Violent incidents are a rarity.
 
1860, the older club, draws its support chiefly from within the city. Bayern's followers come mainly from suburban areas mushrooming with the growth of high-tech industries in recent years.
 
The intensity of the rivalry has much to do with the close proximity of the clubs. Their headquarters and training grounds lie almost back-to-back. They eye each other endlessly.
 
To the outsider this derby day mania may be difficult to appreciate. Especially since Bayern are so super rich and so successful compared to 1860.
 
The Munich derby, as a certain Mr Lineker might put it, is between the Reds (Bayern) and the Light Blues (1860). And the Reds (nearly) always win. 1860 have won only eight of the 34 meetings in the Bundesliga. And only two of the last 22.
 
Despite Bayern's continuing success – a 5-nil romp on Saturday - team boss Ottmar Hitzfeld finds it an increasingly difficult match. "The interest in it is so great nowadays that the pressure to win increases with every meeting."
 
For Franz Beckenbauer, Bayern's President, Munich's enthusiasm for the derby underlines the popularity of the domestic game. "There will always be a Bundesliga," said Beckenbauer. "In Germany domestic football will always have preference over international competition."
 
He has a point. Bayern attract bigger crowds on average in the Bundesliga (53,000 last season) than in European competition, even allowing for the attraction of the Champions League. Obviously Champions League competition earns more in terms of hard cash thanks to television contracts.
 
A European League may well develop from the present Champions League set up. But it will not replace the traditional Saturday afternoon attraction of national league football. That is what still turns the fans on. And derby clashes highlight it.

Roy Fairbairn, February 2003