Episode 10 Borussia Dortmund London Fan Club Podcast 1.FC Kaiserslautern bust, seriously?! With Nik Wildhagen of Talking Fussball Podcast.

Welcome to the BvB London fan club podcast as every week the focus of the show will be on exploring a facet of Borussia Dortmund life by talking to experts and former participants of the club's life, like players, fans, journalists who have covered the club and functionaries and experts and thus make our BvB more accessible to non-German speakers in particular.

 

In a week where the Meisterschaft is decided and Bayern have taken the honours , again, Borussia Dortmund are confirmed finishing in second in the league for the 09th time as 'Vizemeister' (second-place finishers) it's time for a tactical diversion.

 

Ben heads to the South-West of Germany. On tonight's show we look at one of BVBs old rivals over the decades who is now facing huge challenges to survive as a professional club like a number of others they have been badly affected by the pandemic but have also suffered years of mismanagement and have now this week gone into voluntary administration; four-time champions 1 F.C Kaiserslautern. 

 

How could that have happened to such a big club? Is this a one-off or is there an underlying weakness below the 2 Liga in German football? Ben's guests are Mark Sheppard and Talking Fussball editor Nik Wildhagen, Nik is a journalist with a passion for historical clubs of Germany and on the show.

 

Kaiserslautern is a club steeped in history and should be on any groundhoppers bucket-list.  We explore how a club who won the Championship as recently as 1998 with a stadium with an average following of 18,000 spectators even in the third tier could be facing insolvency. What are the factors that have contributed to the relegation of '1FCK' and the factors into the crisis and we explore the club's history in the Bundesliga and in European competition.  

 

As every week, we contrast this with English clubs, this time we look at Leeds United in the 1990s who faced a similar plight which it has taken them twenty years to recover from as they knock on promotion to the Premier League in the last weeks of the 19-20 season. 

 

We look at the wider challenges of the 2 and 3 Liga and Regionaliga clubs, the second, third and fourth-tiers of German football. Who are the former Champions and DFB Pokal winners playing in the leagues and what are the challenges they face, will more clubs follow? 

 

Apologies to 1.FC Kaiserslautern's goalkeeping coach and 'Lautern' fan his name is of course Gerald Ehrmann not Ehrenfeld!  

 

We hope you enjoy the show, remember to send us your comments, share the show with friends and to apply for tickets contact the club via the website which is borussiadortmundlondon.co.uk or join the London BvB community at our online group at Facebook.com/borussiadortmundfanclubengland. During the season you can also come to watch a game at our meet-up Stammtisch at the Naughty Bar, just off Oxford Street, in Cleveland street London

 

 

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