TL;DR: It’s complicated, Leverkusen is exciting and has some legitimacy within the Bundesliga, but ultimately owe their place at the top of the table to unfair financial advantages provided by the Bayer corporation. Not a massive fan of them winning the league, but kinda want to see Bayern’s streak finally ending.
I’m torn about it. On the one hand, Leverkusen is a joy to watch on the pitch. Xabi Alonso coming in and taking Bayer from relegation candidate to (possibly) champions in just a year and a half would certainly be an incredible story, plus the individual players and their talents are really exciting. They could finally end Bayern’s seemingly eternal streak of championships, which certainly seems desirable.
However, I simply cannot ignore the other side of this. Leverkusen, although they’ve been part of the Bundesliga for a long time, is not a club like any other. They are very much a clup tied deeply to the Bayer corporation, one of the most evil corporations in the world, and their success would not be possible without Bayer’s support. The club and company are so deeply interwoven that the company logo is featured prominently in the club logo, a feature which can only be compared to the Red Bull logo in the RB Leipzig club badge, and the shorthand for Leverkusen in Germany is simply “Bayer”. The club has their finances balanced at the end of each business year by the Bayer corporation, meaning money is not much of a concern for them. This gives them a significant advantage over most other Bundesliga clubs (except Wolfsburg, Hoffenheim and RB). Because of this, I struggle to actually root for them, because I feel that them winning the league would be a significant reward for not obeying the 50+1 rule.
Some football fans will counter this by saying that Leverkusen simply make smart deals on the transfer market and do good work. That’s not entirely false, but it does ignore that Bayer enables the club to buy and sell players at a much higher financial level than they otherwise could without risking bankruptcy if their deals don’t work out. This club is complicated. There’s certainly a fan culture, a genuine connection to the city, and some good work being done, it seems very possible that Leverkusen could survive in the Bundesliga even without the support of Bayer. But without the financial advantage over other clubs that Bayer provides them, Leverkusen would not be anywhere near the championship, that’s absolutely a result of their corporate identity. Ultimately, I would like to see Bayern finally defeated, but I’d much prefer for a club like Dortmund or Stuttgart to beat them. RB would be the worst case scenario, worse than Bayern, Leverkusen or anyone else. If Leverkusen do end up winning the championship this year, I can’t say I’ll be too happy for them, but I’ll certainly be happy that Bayern’s winning streak was broken for once.
TL;DR: It’s complicated, Leverkusen is exciting and has some legitimacy within the Bundesliga, but ultimately owe their place at the top of the table to unfair financial advantages provided by the Bayer corporation. Not a massive fan of them winning the league, but kinda want to see Bayern’s streak finally ending.
I’m torn about it. On the one hand, Leverkusen is a joy to watch on the pitch. Xabi Alonso coming in and taking Bayer from relegation candidate to (possibly) champions in just a year and a half would certainly be an incredible story, plus the individual players and their talents are really exciting. They could finally end Bayern’s seemingly eternal streak of championships, which certainly seems desirable.
However, I simply cannot ignore the other side of this. Leverkusen, although they’ve been part of the Bundesliga for a long time, is not a club like any other. They are very much a clup tied deeply to the Bayer corporation, one of the most evil corporations in the world, and their success would not be possible without Bayer’s support. The club and company are so deeply interwoven that the company logo is featured prominently in the club logo, a feature which can only be compared to the Red Bull logo in the RB Leipzig club badge, and the shorthand for Leverkusen in Germany is simply “Bayer”. The club has their finances balanced at the end of each business year by the Bayer corporation, meaning money is not much of a concern for them. This gives them a significant advantage over most other Bundesliga clubs (except Wolfsburg, Hoffenheim and RB). Because of this, I struggle to actually root for them, because I feel that them winning the league would be a significant reward for not obeying the 50+1 rule.
Some football fans will counter this by saying that Leverkusen simply make smart deals on the transfer market and do good work. That’s not entirely false, but it does ignore that Bayer enables the club to buy and sell players at a much higher financial level than they otherwise could without risking bankruptcy if their deals don’t work out. This club is complicated. There’s certainly a fan culture, a genuine connection to the city, and some good work being done, it seems very possible that Leverkusen could survive in the Bundesliga even without the support of Bayer. But without the financial advantage over other clubs that Bayer provides them, Leverkusen would not be anywhere near the championship, that’s absolutely a result of their corporate identity. Ultimately, I would like to see Bayern finally defeated, but I’d much prefer for a club like Dortmund or Stuttgart to beat them. RB would be the worst case scenario, worse than Bayern, Leverkusen or anyone else. If Leverkusen do end up winning the championship this year, I can’t say I’ll be too happy for them, but I’ll certainly be happy that Bayern’s winning streak was broken for once.