Bundesliga scandal (1971)
The Bundesliga scandal (der Bundesliga-Skandal) refers to the malicious, for-profit manipulation of games in the 1970–71 German football championship season.
History
The manipulation of games was revealed when the president of Kickers Offenbach, Horst-Gregorio Canellas, presented an audio-tape to DFB officials and a few journalists at his 50th birthday garden-party. In that tape, several players, including German internationals Bernd Patzke and Manfred Manglitz, could be heard offering to let themselves be bribed to help Offenbach avoid relegation.[1]
The chief prosecutor of the DFB, Hans Kindermann, found out that amongst others the 17 April 1971 game Schalke-Bielefeld that ended 0–1 for the visitors had been "sold" (or thrown) by Schalke's players and board of directors. Afterwards, nearly all Schalke players were banned for long periods, while several lifetime bans were imposed.
The players maintained their innocence, and even swore an oath to that, but the oath was eventually proven to be false. Schalke's rivals, especially from the Ruhr, still occasionally refer to Schalke as FC Meineid (German for "FC Perjury").
Fifty-two players, two managers, and six club functionaries were punished. Also, Bielefeld and Offenbach had their license to participate in the Bundesliga revoked. Offenbach would have been relegated due to their sporting performance anyway, despite the manipulated games, but Bielefeld was to play in the next Bundesliga season. Eventually, Bielefeld had to play all 34 games of the 1971–72 season, but would be relegated after the season, independently of their record.
Manipulated games
- 17 April 1971: Schalke-Bielefeld 0–1
- 5 May 1971: Köln-Essen 3–2
- 8 May 1971: Offenbach-Oberhausen 3–2
- 22 May 1971: Köln-Oberhausen 2–4; Duisburg-Bielefeld 4–1
- 29 May 1971: Bielefeld-Stuttgart 1–0; Offenbach-Frankfurt 0–2
- 5 June 1971: Braunschweig-Oberhausen 1–1*; Hertha BSC-Bielefeld 0–1; Köln-Offenbach 4–2
*Strictly speaking, the game was not manipulated, but the Braunschweig players were promised, and given, for winning this game an additional bonus by a third party, which was illegal.
Punished participants
Players
- Hertha BSC: Tasso Wild, Bernd Patzke, Jürgen Rumor, Laszlo Gergely, Volkmar Groß, Peter Enders, Wolfgang Gayer, Arno Steffenhagen, Karl-Heinz Ferschl, Hans-Jürgen Sperlich, Franz Brungs, Jürgen Weber, Michael Kellner, Uwe Witt, and Zoltán Varga.
- VfB Stuttgart: Hans Arnold, Hartmut Weiß, and Hans Eisele.
- FC Schalke 04: Klaus Fichtel, Hans-Jürgen Wittkamp, Rolf Rüssmann, Herbert Lütkebohmert, Manfred Pohlschmidt, Hans Pirkner, Jürgen Sobieray, Klaus Fischer, Reinhard Libuda, Dieter Burdenski, Klaus Senger, Jürgen Galbierz, and Heinz van Haaren.
- Arminia Bielefeld: Waldemar Slomiany and Jürgen Neumann.
- MSV Duisburg: Volker Danner and Gerhard Kentschke.
- Eintracht Braunschweig: Lothar Ulsaß, Horst Wolter, Wolfgang Grzyb, Peter Kaack, Franz Merkhoffer, Bernd Gersdorff, Klaus Gerwien, Rainer Skrotzki, Eberhard Haun, Jaro Deppe, Dietmar Erler, Friedhelm Haebermann, Joachim Bäse, Michael Polywka, and Burkhardt Öller.
Coaches
- Oberhausen: Egon Piechaczek and Günter Brocker
Club officials
- Oberhausen: Peter Maaßen
- Hertha BSC: Wolfgang Holst
- Offenbach: Horst-Gregorio Canellas, Friedrich Mann, Fritz Koch, and Waldemar Klein.
See also
References
External links
- Der Bundesliga-Skandal 1971: Das Ende der Unschuld (in German)
- Der Bundesliga-Skandal vor 34 Jahren (in German)
- Der Bundesligaskandal 1971 (in German)
