Bayern Múnich

Bayern Munich (in German: Fußball-Club Bayern München e.V., pronounced /ˈfuːsbalˌklʊp ˈbaɪɐn ˈmʏnçn̩/), also known as FC Bayern (pronounced /ˌɛft͡seː ˈbaɪɐn/), or simply Bayern, is a professional sports club from the city of Munich (Germany). It was founded on 27 February 1900 by eleven players captained by Franz John. It is one of the most prestigious clubs in the world and is best known for its professional football section, which competes in the 1. Bundesliga. Since 2005 it has played its home matches at the Allianz Arena, popularly known in German as “Schlauchboot” (lit. “inflatable boat”, because of its shape), which has a capacity of 75,024 spectators, the twelfth largest in Europe.

Devoted from its beginnings to the development of football, it very soon became a multi-sport club and developed several other disciplines, some of which have disappeared over the years. The management of the team is the responsibility of a subsidiary company of the club called FC Bayern München AG, which manages the economic assets and the activities at the Allianz Arena. 75% of the capital of this public limited company belongs to the club, while the other 24.99% is divided among the companies Adidas AG, Audi AG and Allianz SE.

It is the most decorated club in the history of the Bundesliga, with 32 league titles, including the German championship of 1932, when the tournament was not yet under its current unified format. It is also the most successful club in the German Cup and the German Super Cup, with 20 and 10 trophies respectively.

Internationally, Bayern finished third, one vote behind Manchester United, in the FIFA Club of the Century election, while in the study carried out by the IFFHS to determine the best club of the 20th century, it ranked ninth in the world and fifth in Europe. It is also one of the five teams that have won the right to keep the European Cup permanently, and it wears the badge of multiple champion of the tournament, after winning consecutively in 1974, 1975 and 1976. It is also one of the three teams to achieve the treble and, in addition, win the FIFA Club World Cup in the same year (Juventus of Turin, Ajax of Amsterdam, Manchester United and Chelsea are the other four clubs that have won the three major competitions: the Champions League, the Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Cup). Furthermore, together with Barcelona, they are the only European clubs to win the continental treble twice, and also the only two clubs in the world to win the sextuple.

In Europe's top club tournament, the Champions League, Bayern has played a total of eleven finals and ranks second in the all-time table by ranking and points in this tournament. In terms of titles won, it is the third team that has won the Champions League the most times, with six trophies, level with Liverpool and behind Real Madrid with fifteen and Milan with seven. Likewise, owing to its world title victories in 1976, 2001, 2013 and 2020, it belongs to the group of only thirty-one clubs in the world that have won the top club championship at world level, and is the German team with the most titles won.

On the sporting front, the “Bavarian” team maintains a rivalry with several clubs. In Germany the rivalry is with Borussia Dortmund, against whom it has its greatest recent contest in the matches known as “Der Klassiker”; with 1860 Munich, with whom it plays the “Munich derby”; with Stuttgart, with whom it plays the “Südderby”; and with Hamburg, with whom it plays the matches known as “the north-south summit”. In turn, its great historic European rival is Real Madrid. The two clubs have played the most matches and have the most victories in the Champions League and maintain the longest-standing rivalry. All of this rivalry is summed up in “the European clásico”.

Economically, the association is one of the most successful in the world: in 2023 Bayern ranked sixth in the ranking of the clubs with the highest revenues in the world compiled by the private firm Deloitte. Meanwhile, in 2023 Bayern finished sixth in the list of the most valuable teams by Forbes magazine.

As of 2 April 2024, the association had 3,995 official fan clubs with a total of 360,130 registered members, and it also has 318,372 members (socios), which makes it the sports club with the largest membership in the world.