Season 1988/89: It is the season when a certain Christoph Daum teases the powerful Bayern manager Uli Hoeneß. The verbal exchange of blows between the two is TV history. Just like the very special scandal of a goalkeeper. And in the end it was as rough in the Bundesliga as it was with Bud Spencer and Terence Hill.
Conditions in Bremen were not only clear in the 1988/89 season, but there was also a lot of laughter, as this joke documents. Werder's chairman Dr. At the time, Franz Böhmert complained to manager Willi Lemke: "Once and for all: I'm still the president!" Lemke countered very coolly: "Oh yes, and who runs the shop here at Werder? I do! God told me that personally!" Coach Otto Rehhagel called in from the side: "What should I have said?"
In the end, the "football god" Rehhagel and his boys from Bremen didn't make it to the championship, but a good third place continued the successful series of the last few years. The fact that things got difficult for Werder this season was mainly due to another coach. FC coach Christoph Daum gave everything in the championship race. Before the 2-1 away win at Rehhagels Bremern, he sent the Cologne managing director Schänzler to the bank to withdraw 35,000 marks. It was the bonus that every player should receive in case of winning the championship. Together with his congenial partner Roland Koch, the motivational guru Daum stuck the money on cardboard and pinned it on a board in the meeting room. Daum to his amazed players: "So you can see what's at stake today!"
And indeed: From the 24th match day, the pressure on Bayern increased. After Cologne's victory in Hamburg and the simultaneous loss of last year's runners-up in Gladbach, 1. FC Cologne was only three points behind Munich in the table. But what did Daum say: "We're close to Bayern up to one point." The Cologne coach publicly simply relied on FC winning their home game against Munich. Jupp Heynckes reacted coldly to so much offensive urge: "Thumb should play the lottery, he can become a millionaire if he knows everything in advance!" Daum shouldn't do that - because FC Bayern won the game in the Müngersdorfer Stadion and, as usual, became German champions.
But before this match on the 31st match day, there was a real highlight in 60 years of the Bundesliga. It is one of the most legendary talks that have ever taken place in ZDF's "Aktuelle Sportstudio". The duel between Christoph Daum and Udo Lattek on the one hand and Uli Hoeneß and Jupp Heynckes on the other went down in history. For weeks, the Cologne coach had made verbal attacks in the direction of Munich and there, above all, on the coach Jupp Heynckes. Daum allowed himself to be carried away with statements such as "Heynckes could also advertise sleeping pills" or "Every weather report is more meaningful than a conversation with Heynckes". When he also said: "The Munich journalists asked me about the difference between Heynckes and a great coach," Bayern manager Uli Hoeneß was really angry: "Daum probably missed the semester of rhetoric." Heynckes also gave out vigorously after the first shock: "The Daum is a cheap Lattek imitation. It has too much Hafenstrasse and Kreuzberg level. It should have found the button to turn itself off, it needs medicine against height rush."
Erich Ribbeck also got involved in the dispute from afar and judged Daum: "This Schwartlappen. I've been in the business for more than ten years and I'm still here. Daum won't live to see ten years in the Bundesliga." When ARD moderator Waldemar Hartmann asked the Cologne coach after the whole story if he would apologize to Heynckes, Daum replied: "For what? You can't talk to two in his shell anyway!"
With a little distance, young coach Daum expressed himself a little more moderately: "I wanted to achieve two things. I wanted to become champion - and dismantle the Bayern myth. They always have a bonus because everyone is afraid of them. Even a draw at home counted as a success. Uli Hoeneß's view that all teams are particularly motivated against Bayern is not correct. Everyone's fed up!"
The Bundesliga wasn't just getting stronger verbally: Bochum's striker Uwe Leifeld was almost more in hospital beds than at home in his own double bed. A scar on the knee required thirty stitches. The treating doctor afterwards said to the striker: "They always remind you how many points VfL need per season." Above all, Leifeld accused the unfairness of the opposing defenders: "Emanuel Günther kicked my ankle twice with his cleats and then said to me: 'I'll kick you so small that you can never play again.'" Lautern's goalkeeper Gerry Ehrmann grabbed his crotch and hissed dryly: "I'll rip everything off you!" According to Leifeld, the two Waldhöfer Roland Dickgiesser and Dimitrios Tsionanis are particularly tough guys: “They are like Bud Spencer and Terence Hill. They hit everything that moves. They know how to step past the shin guards to meet you."
The new season experienced its first highlight of a special kind after just 75 minutes. Frankfurt goalkeeper Uli Stein had already caused the first big excitement of the fresh season. After Bayern's Klaus Augenthaler made it 1-0, he simply left the field and leaned against the advertising board, shaking his head. When referee Witke wanted to start the whistle again, but couldn't, he didn't hesitate for a second, rushed to the goalkeeper and showed him the yellow card. But since Uli Stein applauded the referee's decision, he also saw the red card and was then in despair: "I didn't say anything!"
Referee Witke argued soberly: "We are required to enforce the rules!" Irritated amazement at the referee's harsh interpretation of the rules everywhere. Only Eintracht coach Kalli Feldkamp found the words again quickly: "I don't think that the referee whistled so badly because of the heat. Because then he should never whistle again when the sun is shining!" In defense of referee Witke, however, it should also be said: It was not the first dismissal of Uli Stein in his career.
And a bon mot at the end. Unthinkable today, but still quite normal back then: A Bundesliga game was postponed because of a dog show. The home game of SV Werder Bremen against Borussia Dortmund had to take place later because of the invasion of the four-legged friends.
