It’s almost a cliché: in Stuttgart, capital of Baden-Württemberg, the football stadium – the MHPArena – is wedged between the Porsche Arena and the Daimler Museum. The two proud automobile manufacturers of the region, the second of which believes to have invented the first car in the world, are obviously sponsors and shareholders of VfB Stuttgart, founded in 1893. Automobile and football: here, we brandish the two emblems of pride very high German. As much as in Munich, except that FC Bayern plays at a much higher level, something that we don’t really like to recognize in the Swabian country.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers Euro 2024: from the “miracle of 1954” to the crisis of a model, football as a mirror of German society
Add to your selections
How can we explain that between Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, these two rival regions, equivalent in terms of economic success, the first has definitively surpassed the second in football terms, despite the wealth of their respective sponsors? “Bavaria has the opportunity to buy a player for 100 million euros. We can’t.”summarizes Christian Schmidt, VfB fan since childhood, now an employee of the club, in charge of relations with fans.
Stuttgart certainly enjoys a prestigious past and finished second in the Bundesliga – Germany’s top division – this year, ahead of Bayern Munich (3e), but previous seasons had been less successful. And, for fans, there is no question of speculating on players in order to return more quickly to the very high level. “For me, the Champions League, with its enormous profits distributed to participants, has not been beneficial for sporting competition within the European leagues. And clubs financed from outside, for example by States, are enormously harmful to professional football as a whole., grumbled Christian. This is the spirit of the Swabian country, this region of southwest Germany known for its “hidden champions”, medium-sized family businesses, world leaders in an industrial sector, but completely unknown to the general public. .
“Work, work, and build your house”
“Of course we are a Swabian club! Here we say: “Schaffe, schaffe, Häusle baue” [“travaille, travaille, et construis ta maison”]. There is a very Protestant imprint, the image of someone who owns a luxury car but prefers to keep it in the garage. It is very important that the club is well managed financially, in balance, the supporters are very attentive to this”, continues Christian Schmidt. This not only means that the management of the VfB requires prudence, but also that the club has a responsibility towards its members.
You have 62.48% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
