AMD 4 Aaron

I thought it would be an appropriate time to do a Fußball post in response to Alisa's. I am an avid fan of the Bundesliga and the German national team. My favorite team is Schalke 04 and I thought I'd give everyone a little lesson in Schalke history, as well as some interesting facts about the Bundesliga. Schalke has a 04 ending because of their founding date in 1904 (The NFL wasn't even founded until 1920). They started out as a combination of a gymnastics team and soccer team with colors of red and yellow. This changed when the gymnastics team and soccer team split up in 1924 and the soccer team became FC Schalke 04. They changed their colors to the traditional blue and white that they wear today. Schalke is not exactly a consistent team as they can go from relegation one year to a high finish the next. Schalke has won the German cup several times, the UEFA championship once, and the DFB cup numerous times. They play in Veltins Area, which I think is one of the prettiest stadiums in Germany. Last year Schalke finished in the semi finals of the Champions league with a loss to Manchester United. If you are interested in learning any more about Schalke 04, feel free to talk to me in class.

Okay onto the Bundesliga. The Bundesliga consists of 2 divisions, the 1st and the 2nd division. There are 18 teams in the both divisions. Unlike American football, championships are determined by total number of points in a season. 3 are given for a win, 1 for a draw, and 0 for a loss. Unlike American sports, the Bundesliga has a penalty for finishing last in the 1st division, which is relegation. The bottom two teams in the 1st division switch with the top 2 teams in the 2nd division, so there is incentive to continue to play at a high level rather than wait for something like a good draft pick. This keeps fans happy and gives them a good reason to continue to attend. In fact, the Bundesliga has an average attendance of 41,802 in 2010, a rather high number considering the number of games that are played a year. In fact, the Bundesliga is one of the few soccer leagues in the world that make a profit due to their salary cap. This also creates a higher level of competition as the teams are more likely to be even. This is in stark contrast to the Spanish Primera which is dominated by teams such as Barcelona and Real Madrid who have a very high team salary, but are also in debt. More information is available at www.bundesliga.de, which can be read in either German or English.