Good to Know — Things Few People Know
FC Bayern was born out of frustration, with generous quantities of alcohol, club colours of blue and white, and without any actual Bavarians.
The True Founding Story
Not Bavarian, not red, not sober.
The Founding — A Spectacular Row
On 27 February 1900, a fierce row erupted at the Bäckerhöfl inn in Munich.
A meeting of the football division of MTV München took place. A fierce row erupted over the future direction of the club's football division. The general assembly of MTV had shortly before rejected the club's application to join the Association of South German Football Clubs. That did not go down well — at least not with all those present.
The Weinhaus Gisela
At around 21:30, eleven men stormed out of the inn in a fury — and moved on to the Weinhaus Gisela in Schwabing.
MTV members Ringler, Naegele, Zoepffel, Pollack, Fritz and Karl Wamsler, Schmid, Francke, Friederich, Focke and Franz John founded F.C. Bayern that very evening — with exactly eleven men. Among the founding members listed on the club's certificate was the sculptor Benno Elkan, then still unknown.
Spirits High on Beer, Schnapps and Wine
Brimming with frustration, rage in their bellies, and fuelled by beer, schnapps and wine, they founded F.C. Bayern.
A Berliner became the first gaffer. Franz John took the chair and also became the first chairman in the club's history.
More Like Borussia München
The majority of the founders did not come from Munich or Bavaria at all.
They came from Berlin, Freiburg, Leipzig and Bremen. The founding colours were blue and white — red did not feature at first. Less Bayern München, then — more like Borussia München.
- Founders
- 11 men
- First chairman
- Franz John (Berliner)
- Original colours
- Blue and white
The Moneybags of the Bundesliga
Close to a billion euros in revenue — but margins are shrinking.
The 2024/25 Numbers
FC Bayern remain clearly Germany's number one in economic terms and an absolute top club internationally.
Group revenue €978.3m, EBITDA €187.8m, pre-tax profit €42.5m, net income €27.1m. Group equity rose to €585.5m as of 30 June 2025. In the Deloitte Football Money League 2026, FC Bayern ranked third worldwide with €860.6m, behind Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.
- Revenue
- €978.3m
- EBITDA
- €187.8m
- Net margin
- 2.8%
- Deloitte ranking
- #3 worldwide
- Equity
- €585.5m
Record Revenues and Declining Profits
Record revenue still signals enormous economic strength — but cannot disguise that margins have come under pressure.
At the same time, the latest accounts show that record revenues do not automatically translate into rising profitability. Compared with 2023/24, group revenue rose from €951.5m to €978.3m, yet pre-tax profit fell from €62.7m to €42.5m and net income from €43.1m to €27.1m.
In the AG's individual accounts, total personnel costs rose from €396.5m to €408.3m; even more striking: depreciation and amortisation increased from €95.1m to €132.3m, including amortisation on transfer fees from €89.2m to €126.4m.
The net margin of 2.8 per cent in the 2024/25 season is wafer-thin. Personnel costs devour roughly 53 per cent of genuine revenue (excluding transfers).
Bottom line: close to a billion euros in revenue, significantly stronger than 2019, the last year before Covid.
A single world-class transfer (Harry Kane: ~€100m) swallows roughly four years' worth of net income.
Balance Sheet View: The Stadium Is an Asset — But Only Partly Realisable
Part of this asset base is tied to a special-purpose property that does not meet a broad third-party market.
The balance sheet looks unassailably solid. But a methodological problem: valuation standards such as RICS typically treat special-purpose properties via the DRC/cost approach, because comparable market transactions are absent and value is strongly use-dependent. For FC Bayern, the arena is hugely valuable — from a distress perspective, however, that value would be only partially realisable.
The market of potential successor tenants consists of precisely one third-division club — which couldn't afford the arena on its first attempt.
TV Money: No Longer a Real Growth Engine
DFL media revenues are growing by just 2% per cycle.
In the 2024/25 individual accounts, FC Bayern reported €105.3m in media marketing income, of which €102.9m from DFL central marketing; in 2023/24 the figures were €91.7m and €90.9m respectively.
This shows: Bayern continues to benefit significantly from the distribution system. But the underlying engine is turning only slowly now. The DFL has announced revenues of €1.121bn per season, or €4.484bn in total, for the new German-language media rights cycle from 2025/26 — just around 2% more than the previous four-year cycle.
For the league, that means planning certainty; for top clubs, however, it is no great leap in growth.
For Bayern in particular, the message is clear: anyone wanting to compete internationally can rely less and less on a rapidly swelling TV pot.
- TV revenue
- €105.3m
- DFL cycle
- €1.121bn/season
- Growth
- +2% vs. previous cycle
FC Bayern and Its Rivals
Dominance was not preordained — it was hard-won and shrewdly engineered.
Bayern vs. Gladbach (1969–1977)
For eight years, only two names appeared on the championship trophy.
Borussia Mönchengladbach and Bayern München. Both qualified for the Bundesliga in 1964/65. What is less well known: both clubs relied almost exclusively on local heroes in the 1960s. In Gladbach, Netzer, Vogts, Wimmer and Heynckes; in Munich, Beckenbauer, Maier and Müller.
Bayern vs. HSV and 1. FC Köln
At least two clubs had similarly good starting conditions to FCB in the 1980s.
All three played in a large stadium, were based in a major city, had big sponsors and a huge fanbase. But only FCB also had good management. At the other two, the Peter Principle and Avanti Dilettanti had reigned since the 1990s. As early as 1991, only the Doll transfer to Lazio saved HSV's licence. Köln were relegated for the first time in 1998.
FC Bayern in Financial Trouble
In 1984, FCB were 8 million Deutschmarks in debt.
The sale of Karl-Heinz Rummenigge to Inter Milan for 11.5 million DM saved the balance sheet. Bayern invested the Milan money superbly: Lothar Matthäus for 2.4 million DM, Roland Wohlfarth for one million. From 1985 to 1987, the club's second title hat-trick followed.
Coaching Chronicle 2020–2026
Five head coaches in six years, ~€60 million in compensation fees and severance payments.
Hansi Flick (2019–2021)
The most successful Bayern coach since Heynckes — Sextuple and 81.9% win rate.
Treble 2020 with a 1-0 Champions League final win over PSG. Barcelona 8-2 in the quarter-final — one of the most memorable results in Champions League history. Six trophies in one season. Departure due to long-running conflict with sporting director Salihamidžić over squad planning.
- Trophies
- 6 in one season (Sextuple)
- Win rate
- 81.9%
- Tenure
- Nov 2019 – Jun 2021
Julian Nagelsmann (2021–2023)
€25 million transfer fee, 20 months in charge, then sacked.
Record fee for a coach. One championship in 2021/22, but Champions League exit to Villarreal. Sacked after a matchday 25 defeat to Leverkusen. Later became Germany national team manager.
- Fee
- ~€25m
- Tenure
- 20 months
Thomas Tuchel (2023–2024)
Rescued the championship on the final matchday — and was still let go before end of season.
2021 Champions League winner with Chelsea took over in March 2023. Secured the 11th consecutive title. But 2023/24 became a disaster: not a single trophy. Leverkusen became unbeaten champions. As early as February 2024, his departure was announced.
The Coaching-Search Chaos of Summer 2024
Five public rejections in a row — FC Hollywood was back.
Xabi Alonso said no. Nagelsmann said no. Rangnick said no, even though he was practically confirmed. De Zerbi said no. Glasner said no. The record champions became the laughing stock of the industry.
Vincent Kompany (since 2024)
From relegated Burnley to Bayern coach — and then 16 consecutive wins.
Hardly anyone trusted the 38-year-old former player with the job. What followed: the most intense pressing since Guardiola, 16 consecutive wins as a start record, the 34th championship. Harry Kane's first trophy, Thomas Müller's 13th championship — a record. Müller then ended his 25-year FCB career.
- Fee
- ~€10.5m
- Start record
- 16 consecutive wins
And the Management Went With It
In May 2023, FC Bayern dismissed CEO Oliver Kahn and sporting director Salihamidžić — on the day of the title win.
Both learned of their removal on the same day that Tuchel led the team to the title. Max Eberl became the new sporting director — of all people, from the Red Bull cosmos. Christoph Freund came from RB Salzburg. The RB connection at the anti-investor club — a contradiction duly noted by the ultras.