I don’t watch soccer, mostly because I find it boring. Part of this is because it seems like the same teams always win, which is caused by the open system of promotion and relegation. While it is theoretically possible to start a club on the bottom of the pyramid and advance through it to higher levels, this is very rare and only possible through a tremendous amount of effort and money.
Indeed the top clubs already have the money, can buy better players for that money, and with that enforce their domination over the leagues. In germany it is slightly better than in for example england, because the clubs can’t just be bought up by foreign interests who pump money into them for prestige. However, the result remains largely the same as Bayern Munich has clung onto the title for 11 years running.
Except today Bayer 04 Leverkusen solidified an insurmountable 16 point lead on Bayern in the table with just 5 gamedays left to play (in which Bayern could at most gain 15 points), thus crowning a new champion. This is the first time Leverkusen won the championship despite being at the top level since 1979. Still, my point above basically remains the same as Leverkusen is of course sponsored by the Bayer pharmaceutical conglomerate, as the club was originally formed by employees of the company 120 years ago.
It was an entertaining match and Austria definitely deserved the win.