Bayern Munich

## **Founding**

FC Bayern Munich was founded in 1900 by 11 football players, led by Franz John. Although Bayern won its first national championship in 1932, the club was not selected for the Bundesliga at its inception in 1963. The club had its period of greatest success in the mid-1970s when, under the captaincy of Franz Beckenbauer, they won the European Cup three consecutive times (1974–1976). Overall, Bayern have won six European Cup/UEFA Champions League titles (a German record), winning their sixth title in the 2020 final as part of the  Treble, after which it became only the second European club to achieve the feat twice. Bayern has also won one UEFA Cup, one European Cup Winners' Cup, two UEFA Super Cups, two FIFA Club World Cups and two Intercontinental Cups, making it one of the most successful European clubs internationally, and the only German club to have won both international titles. Bayern players have accumulated five Ballon d'Or awards, two The Best FIFA Men's Player awards, four European Golden Shoeand three UEFA Men's Player of the Year awards, including UEFA Club Footballer of the Year.

## History

### Trophy Amount

33 Bundesliga, 6 UCL, 1 UEL

In the original club constitution, Bayern's colours were named as white and blue, but the club played in white shirts with black shorts until 1905 when Bayern joined MSC. MSC decreed that the footballers would have to play in red shorts. Also, the younger players were called red shorts, which were meant as an insult. For most of the club's early history, Bayern had primarily worn white and maroon home kits. In 1968–69 season, Bayern changed to red and blue striped shirts, with blue shorts and socks. Between 1969 and 1973, the team wore a home strip of red and white striped shirts with either red or white shorts and red socks. In the 1973–74 season, the team switched to an all-white kit featuring single vertical red and blue stripes on the shirt. From 1974 onwards, Bayern has mostly worn an all-red home kit with white trim. Bayern revived the red and blue striped colour scheme between 1995 and 1997. In 1997, blue was the dominant colour for the first time when Adidas released an all navy blue home kit with a red chest band. In 1999, Bayern returned to a predominantly red kit, which featured blue sleeves, and in 2000 the club released a traditional all red kit with white trim to be worn for Champions League matches. Bayern also wore a *Rotwein* coloured home kits in Bundesliga matches between 2001 and 2003, and during the 2006–07 Champions League campaign, in reference to their first-choice colours prior to the late 1960s.

The club's away kit has had a wide range of colours over the years, including white, black, blue, and gold-green. Bayern also features a distinct international kit. During the 2013–14 season, Bayern used an all-red home kit with a Bavarian flag diamond watermark pattern, a *Lederhosen* inspired white and black *Oktoberfest* away kit, and an all navy blue international kit.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Bayern used a special away kit when playing at 1. FC Kaiserslautern, representing the Brazilian colours blue and yellow, a superstition borne from the fact that the club found it hard to win there.

## **Stadiums**

Bayern played its first training games at the Schyrenplatz in the centre of Munich. The first official games were held on the Theresienwiese. In 1901, Bayern moved to a field of its own, located in Schwabing at the Clemensstraße. After joining the Münchner Sport-Club (MSC) in 1906, Bayern moved in May 1907 to MSC's ground at the Leopoldstraße. As the crowds gathering for Bayern's home games increased at the beginning of the 1920s, Bayern had to switch to various other premises in Munich.

From 1925, Bayern shared the Grünwalder Stadion with 1860 Munich. Until World War II, the stadium was owned by 1860 Munich, and is still colloquially known as *Sechz'ger* ("Sixties") Stadium. It was destroyed during the war, and efforts to rebuild it resulted in a patchwork. Bayern's record crowd at the Grünwalder Stadion is reported as more than 50,000 in the home game against 1. FC Nürnberg in the 1961–62 season. In the Bundesliga era the stadium had a maximum capacity of 44,000 which was reached on several occasions, but the capacity has since been reduced to 21,272. As was the case at most of this period's stadiums, the vast majority of the stadium was given over to terracing. Today the second teams of both clubs play in the stadium.
The Olympiastadion, home of Bayern Munich from 1972 to 2005
For the 1972 Summer Olympics, the city of Munich built the Olympiastadion. The stadium, renowned for its architecture, was inaugurated in the last Bundesliga match of the 1971–72 season. The match drew a capacity crowd of 79,000, a total which was reached again on numerous occasions. In its early days, the stadium was considered one of the foremost stadiums in the world and played host to numerous major finals, such as that of 1974 FIFA World Cup. In the following years the stadium underwent several modifications, such as an increase in seating space from approximately 50 per cent to 66 per cent. Eventually, the stadium had a capacity of 63,000 for national matches and 59,000 for international occasions such as 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, betraying the stadium's track and field heritage. Renovation proved impossible, as the architect Günther Behnisch vetoed major modifications of the stadium.
Allianz Arena is lit in red for Bayern home games.
After much discussion, the city of Munich, the state of Bavaria, Bayern Munich and 1860 Munich jointly decided at the end of 2000 to build a new stadium. While Bayern had wanted a purpose-built football stadium for several years, the awarding of the 2006 FIFA World Cup to Germany stimulated the discussion as the Olympiastadion no longer met the FIFA criteria to host a World Cup game. Located on the northern outskirts of Munich, the Allianz Arena has been in use since the beginning of the 2005–06 season. Its initial capacity of 66,000 fully covered seats has since been increased for matches on national level to 69,901 by transforming 3,000 seats to terracing in a 2:1 ratio. Since August 2012, 2,000 more seats were added in the last row of the top tier increasing the capacity to 71,000. In January 2015, a proposal to increase the capacity was approved by the city council so now Allianz Arena has a capacity of 75,000 (70,000 in Champions League).

The stadium's most prominent feature is the translucent outer layer, which can be illuminated in different colors for impressive effects. Red lighting is used for Bayern home games and white for German national team home games.

In May 2012, Bayern opened a museum about its history, FC Bayern Erlebniswelt, inside the Allianz Arena