Dynamo Dresden is a club with a lot of tradition in Germany. Known for its strong backing and fan base, Dresden has had a rollercoaster run through Germany’s football divisions over the past years. Bouncing back and forth between second league relegation and third division promotion, Dynamo Dresden often faced other obstacles, too.
Located in Eastern Germany, Dresden suffered from financial and economic problems. Added to this, Dynamo Dresden was often unable to stay in the 2. Bundesliga, which further added to its financial hardship. As if all that weren’t bad enough, its excessive and sometimes ultra aggressive fan base often led to fines and even exclusion from the German Cup.
Between 1998 and 2000, Michael Kölmel, a local investor, helped the club out with an over 7 millions euro loan. At that time, the much-needed money saved the club. For the past 15 years, however, Dynamo Dresden struggled to pay back the debt.
This struggle was greatly mitigated by the income gained from a friendly game against German record-champion Bayern Munich.
Bayern Munich is the most profitable and richest German club, and this friendly is not the first time the Bavarian team helped out other clubs during financial hardship. This next good deed was executed by coming to Dresden and playing in front of a sold-out stadium. To even further help Dynamo Dresden, Bayern Munich refused all forms of payment, meaning no travel expenses, no appearance fees, and no fees from tickets or merchandise sale; Dresden reaped all the profits.
It was, above all, a game for a good cause. Bayern is definitely not in need of money, but the club did use this game to further experiment with its squad. Only three days after the season opener against Hamburg, Pep Guardiola used a different squad with nine new players in the starting line-up. Even the benched Götze got his chance to impress, but did not really utilize his chance. Bayern arrived with other stars, including Lahm, Robben, Costa, Müller, and Vidal. For the experimental friendly, this test was another way For Guardiola to show his rotation ideas, with Robben as a sole striker and Rafinha as a central defender. The third division leaders gave Bayern a good fight, but were without a chance at the end, losing 3-1 to the reigning German champion.
No matter the result, this game was above all a charity game to help Dynamo Dresden. And they celebrated their goal in the closing minutes like a victory. The Eastern German club expects around 2 million euros income from ticketing, merchandise, savings, and TV rights. A good amount of money for a Monday night game.
