Football: Success of local clubs puts region on the map

North Rhine-Westphalia might have lost ground economically to places such as Bavaria, but it has had more to boast about recently in a subject that matters passionately in many of its towns and cities: football.

The region is home to 10 of the 36 clubs that compete in the top two divisions of the Bundesliga, the national league, and last year was the most successful for the region’s clubs for many years.

Borussia Dortmund’s young team ran away with the Bundesliga title. Regional rival Bayer 04 Leverkusen came second. And two other teams from North Rhine-Westphalia contested the German cup final: Schalke 04 – which also reached the semi-finals of Europe’s richest competition, the Uefa Champions League – beat second division Duisburg.

Football is an obvious way for outsiders and corporate sponsors to engage with the region.

The stadiums of top clubs such as Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 in the city of Gelsenkirchen, throng with fans: last year, Borussia Dortmund had an average home attendance of more than 78,000, bettered in Europe only by European champions Barcelona.

Partly because of such robust attendances, German football is gaining attention across Europe both on and off the pitch.

What is more, young players from the likes of Dortmund’s training academy are contributing to an exciting national team.

Meanwhile, national rules that deter an influx of wealthy club owners are an interesting example to some countries where football finances look unsustainable.

UK parliamentarians toured Germany this year to see what the English league could learn from the country.

Football also boosts the pride of cities such as Gelsenkirchen and Dortmund that have suffered industrial decline.

Hans-Joachim Watzke, chief executive of Borussia Dortmund, says: “If you go anywhere in the world and say you are from Dortmund, there are only two answers: either ‘Where is that?’ or ‘Ah, Borussia Dortmund’,” he says. “We do the publicity for the city.”

A similar view is expressed by Meinolf Sprink, head of communication at Bayer 04 – a club founded and owned by Bayer, the pharmaceutical company based in the town of Leverkusen near Cologne.

“For the standing of Leverkusen, and Bayer, on a national and international basis, Bayer 04 is very significant,” Mr Sprink says.

“Football is one point of recognition when cities are in ‘soft’ competition with one another. It is a key factor in helping make cities more successful and livable.”

North Rhine-Westphalia’s relevance for German football is set to grow.

Against competition from nearby Gelsenkirchen, Dortmund has been chosen as the venue for the country’s first national football museum. It hopes to attract 250,000 visitors a year when it opens in 2014.

Manuel Neukirchner, the managing director of the museum foundation, says the region’s advantages include a big population, international access and a tremendous density of clubs.

“Football is lived here as nowhere else in Germany,” he says.

“This region has been through huge structural change yet football, and the identification with football, has remained constant. It is a way that towns and cities define themselves.”

Like the region, its clubs have known crisis. Borussia Dortmund, Germany’s only stock market listed club, nearly went bankrupt a decade ago.

Its stadium, one of the symbols of the city, was for many years a millstone but the club last month reported a return to profit and a 35 per cent increase in revenues in its latest financial year.

Finances should be further boosted by participation in the Champions League this year.

At Bayer 04 in Leverkusen the financial model is different.

Because of its origins as a company club, it is one of only two granted exemption from Germany’s strict rule that a club must always be majority-owned by its members, rather than a big corporation or deep-pocketed individual.

Mr Sprink insists Bayer 04 is not unfairly favoured by its corporate owner, which he says gives only €25m ($34m) annually to the club. “We are not comparable with the Abramoviches of this world, or with the approach of some German, Italian and Spanish clubs,” he says.

“If you track what kind of impact Bayer 04 gives Bayer, and work out what you would have to invest to get to the same sort of recognition across print, TV and online, you get a figure of more than €200m. That is the sort of impact they are getting for the €25m they put into the club. It is a very good deal for Bayer.”