A quick glance at the Bundesliga table will show you that after the first round of matches, an unfamiliar name currently parades at the top of it — 1899 Hoffenheim. The story of the club rooted in the village of Hoffenheim in South-West Germany is a remarkable one.

For the romantics it is a fairytale; the cynics on the other hand will argue that the rise of Germany’s most controversial club of the last few years sets a dangerous precedent.

The story began back in the early 1990′s with the return of former player Dietmar Hopp to the club. This was no ordinary alumni return though. Hopp brought with him his vast personal fortune, amassed through the software company he co-founded, SAP (currently Europe’s largest software company).

Looking to invest some of his wealth into a football club, Hopp decided against purchasing an established club, opting instead to invest in the club he had played as a centre-forward for in his younger days, the one closest to his heart, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. At that time, the club was nothing more than an amateur village team turning out in the eighth tier of the German football league system.

In the 18-year period since Hopp became the club’s financial backer, Hoffenheim have risen through the league system to the very top, largely due to the £120 million the entrepreneur has ploughed into the club.

Naturally, parallels have been drawn between Hopp’s involvement with Hoffenheim and Roman Abramovich’s investment in Chelsea. Hopp, though, has been keen to rubbish any suggestion of similarities. Indeed, Hopp has stated that his aims are solely to provide his club with the foundations for long-term success, refuting claims from critics that the club is just his expensive “plaything”.

His investment strategies thus far back-up his claim. In his early years of ownership Hopp invested in state-of-the-art training facilities, and as such 1899 Hoffenheim’s success thus far has been based on the development of youth players from its range of youth academies, which includes teams spanning from under 12s to under 19s age-groups.

The club reached the Regionalliga Sud (third tier) by basing their team on players developed through the club’s youth setup, and proceeded to attain respectable finishing positions in each of their first four seasons in the division. At this point Hopp believed that the club had acquired the necessary foundations and stability in order to push on for promotion to the Bundesliga 2.

For the first time large-scale investment in experienced players and staff took place, preceding the start of Hoffenheim’s 2006/07 campaign. Amongst the newcomers brought in by Hopp was a manager, Ralf Rangnick whom he believed had the credentials to push his beloved Hoffenheim into the upper echelons of German football. Rangnick’s management CV boasted the likes of Vfb Stuttgart, Hannover 96, and Schalke 04. The aim was to be playing in the Bundesliga within three seasons.

Rangnick’s first season in charge ended with a 2nd placed finish, winning promotion to the second tier of German football at the first attempt. It was an unexpectedly quick impact, quicker than Hopp could have hoped for.

Whilst experienced players were brought in, the core of the side consists of talented young players, who have yet to achieve their potential. It has been an effective mix. Star strikers Wellington and Demba Ba (pictured right) have been joined by experienced internationals Per Nilsson and Andreas Ibertsberger. The squad, perhaps tellingly of Hopp’s regime, lacks any household names or familiar faces.

With the success has come notoriety. Fans have begun to flock from further afield and its 6,350 capacity Dietmar-Hopp Stadion is no longer a viable location to host Bundesliga football. Hence, Hopp has financed the development of a new 30,000 capacity stadium, the Rhine-Neckar Arena, situated in the nearby town of Sinsheim (expected to be completed early next year). Whilst their new stadium is being constructed, Hoffenheim will be playing their home matches at the 26,000 capacity Carl-Benz Stadion in another nearby town, Mannheim.

Whilst the success bestowed upon the club has necessitated a move away from the village of Hoffenheim, Hopp has been keen to ensure the club’s links to its community remain intact, with a variety of sports classes accommodating both gender and age being run by the club.

Hoffenheim’s achievements haven’t been greeted with unanimous acceptance though, with some rival fans labeling the club as “corporate whores”. The criticism has been especially forthcoming in former East Germany where fans of clubs with larger support but less money view Hoffenheim as the epitome of the unfair nature of West German capitalism.

No matter how much success the club enjoys over the next few years, the real test of Dietmar Hopp’s Hoffenheim legacy will be when the 68 year old is no longer around to bankroll the club and sign the cheques. The case of Gretna in the Scottish Premier League has shown the risk involved if a club forgets its long-term commitment in favour of short-term success. So far, Hopp has acted sensibly; I hope he continues to do so.

Currently the club has just 1,800 registered club members, a figure dwarfed by the likes of Bayern Munich who have 125,115 and Schalke 04 who have 73,699. The Bundesliga experience will increase the club’s exposure to the general public, and should help to build its reputation and attract fans. They need it to.

Attracting fans may be the easy part; more difficult is ensuring that they are not fickle enough to leave when times are bad. The Hoffenheim story could have an unhappy ending if the foundations for continued success fail to lie firmly in place.

Others believe Hoffenheim are only on the path to bigger and better things. Indeed, Bayern Munich manager Jurgen Klinsmann has suggested that “sooner of later Hoffenheim are going to become a superpower in German football.”

In the present though, the 3-0 win away at Energie Cottbus last Saturday was just the beginning of Hoffenheim’s Bundesliga adventure, but a strong indicator of their intent to succeed at the highest level and their belief that they deserve to be there.

Could Hoffenheim become the first village club to compete in the Champions League? Only time will tell. With Hopp and Rangnick at the club’s helm anything seems possible.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

I left writing my season preview for Arsenal until as late in the day as possible. The season kicks off on Saturday with a home tie against West Brom, and the trepidation I felt mid-July still hasn’t disappeared.

Wednesday night’s result in Holland in the Champions League third qualifying round was a good early test for the Gunners, which they passed, though hardly emphatically. The 2-0 scoreline was somewhat undeserved as FC Twente had plenty of opportunities to score and should be going into the second leg at least level.

There is no doubting that Arsenal will need to improve significantly upon this performance when the real stuff starts this weekend, and they will. I am perhaps reading a little too much into a match in which numerous key first team players were missing, and plenty of young inexperienced players were blooded. It was an acceptable performance overall.

However, Arsenal’s squad depth was an issue last season, and will be their undoing again this season. I am not questioning the quality of Arsenal players; every player in the squad is more than capable of playing fluid, easy-on-the-eye football that we Arsenal fans have come to take for granted over recent years.

Arsenal brand of football seems to improve its level of technique season-on-season, but in recent seasons it has lacked the end product that was bestowed on it in the title winning seasons. Maybe Arsenal have to become a little more direct, a little more ‘ugly.’

There were signs early last season that Arsenal had adapted their game to become more efficient in front of goal, they were beginning to shoot more and from distance, and weren’t scared of the long ball, but as wins became harder to come by, and confidence ebbed, Arsenal retreated into their comfort zone somewhat by rekindling their ‘passing across the 18-yard line’ game that has been a large factor in the club’s failure to win any trophies during the last three seasons.

I don’t see Arsenal’s trophy cabinet having to make room for another addition this season either, unless the Carling Cup team can win the competition as their performances in recent seasons has deserved.

Before last season, supporters were justifiably worried about how the sale of Henry would affect the team; initially it galvanised the squad and Arsenal played as well, if not better than ‘The Invincibles’ of 2003/04. The preseason expectations were justified though, and Arsenal’s inexperience told as the finish line appeared upon the horizon. Whilst expected, it was a little undeserved. This inexperience can’t resurface this season if Arsenal want to win the league.

Finishing four points behind the eventual Champions was a fantastic effort and much more than I had imagined at the start of the season, but if I’m honest, Arsenal football club and its fans should never be settling for anything less than winning every competition we enter. There have been too many ‘transition’ seasons of late.

This preseason has, yet again, been a typical Arsenal summer, with top players leaving for ‘bigger’ teams, and other star performers flirting with potential suitors every time Wenger’s back was turned. It’s a perennial problem for Arsenal, but one the fans have grown to accept. If players don’t want to play for us then they can leave.

The club’s stubbornness to its wage structure, whilst frustrating and also being a contributing factor to our lack of success in recent years and inability to create sustained success over consecutive seasons, is perfectly reasonable and should be highly commended. The long-term future needs to be stable, but we now have to start coupling it again with short-term success.

My worries about Arsenal’s title, no Champions League qualification credentials, are greater this season than last. The impact of losing Hleb and Flamini will have a major effect on Arsenal’s chances of success this season, even more so than the predicted decline following Henry’s move to Catalonia. Hleb and Flamini formed half of Arsenal’s formidable, dynamic midfield last season, and for Arsenal to build upon the foundations laid last season they need to be replaced by players as good, if not better, immediately.

Ramsey and Nasri look like they have tremendous potential but I don’t think they are ready to plug the gaps departed players have created in the midfield.

Nasri should provide more goals than Hleb, but Hleb was perhaps Arsenal’s second best player last season and so his boots are going to be extremely difficult for Nasri to fill. The return of Rosicky, and the transformation of Walcott into a player who performs the high levels he is well capable of, but on a consistent basis, is required.

Filling the gap left by Flamini’s lucrative move to the San Siro could be even more crucial. Last season, if rather unexpectedly, he visibly grew in confidence, and into the role of the midfield’s engine, providing an excellent foil for Fabregas, allowing the young Spaniard to weave his magic so devastatingly. However, he was by no means perfect, and there are plenty of players out there who would perhaps be better suited to the role, though Arsene has only seventeen days to find him. The type of player Arsenal’s failings necessitate finding in order to improve upon last season is a powerful box to box midfielder, of a similar ilk to Vieira – someone to take the hits, so to speak, for Cesc.

It looks like yet another season of ‘transition’ for Arsenal. The level of inexperience has increased. Too much is going to be required of players like Fabregas, Adebayor, Van Persie and the younger prospects. Arsenal need to learn from last season’s errors, the experienced players need to come to the fore (especially Gallas) and guide the young players, and every player needs to improve that extra notch for Arsenal to go the distance this time around.

Realistically, this is too much to ask for this season. The hits the squad has taken over the summer are going to be felt deeply, and we Arsenal fans will have to settle for third or fourth place again, and memorable, yet ultimately unsuccessful, FA Cup and Champions League campaigns this season.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

The ‘Big Kick-Off’ has brought with it a big kick-off for the FA’s new respect for referees campaign. Branded ‘Respect’, the campaign has been prominent during the opening weekend of the Football League season, and equally so at the Premier League’s curtain-raiser, the Community Shield.

The new initiative has been promoted heavily; Manchester United and Portsmouth players were seen sporting t-shirts with the word ‘respect’ on them during their warm-ups at Wembley yesterday, match officials also donned the t-shirts over the course of weekend as they took part in their pre-match rituals, full-page advertisements were placed in national newspapers, and the FA also launched a ‘viral’ video campaign featuring, among others, Fabio Capello, Howard Webb, Les Ferdinand, and ‘Barry from Eastenders’.

The campaign itself is a direct response to a growing number of referees quitting the game at amateur level in response to the abuse they receive from players, coaches and fans alike. As highlighted by Durham FA company secretary John Topping: “Many referees leave the game because of the comments and the behaviour they have to tolerate from outside of the pitch, from parents and coaches.”

The FA is hoping that cutting out the abuse officials receive at the highest level will encourage similar effects at amateur and youth levels.

Last season, the issue of respect, or lack of, towards officials in the Premier League was heavily scrutinised. Ashley Cole and Javier Mascherano were the perpetrators in high-profile incidents.

The issue of disrespect towards match officials has existed for many years, and this isn’t the FA’s first attempt at trying to eradicate this major problem from the sport; the 2001/02 season saw the introduction of the 10-yard rule, which punished dissent by moving free-kicks ten yards closer to the offender’s goal. To begin with the rule was effective, but over the course of the season it disappeared, before finally being scrapped altogether by FIFA in June 2005 due to “a four-year trial period in England proving unsuccessful.”

Ian Blanchard, head of national referee development, has tried to ease any suggestion that this will be yet another FA campaign which fades away into obscurity, “We are not expecting anything to change overnight, and this is not a campaign or a recruitment drive that will run for a couple of months then fade away. We are in this for the long run, though hopefully people should start to see a difference right away.”

The effect the new campaign has depends largely upon how it is enforced during the opening few weeks of the season. Referees need to set a precedent and show that disrespect will not be tolerated at all. Less of Mike Riley’s leniency towards Ashley Cole and more of Steve Bennett’s intolerance of Mascherano’s behaviour is undoubtedly the order of the day.

Its effectiveness on the opening weekend has set a good marker, but this stance needs to continue throughout the coming weeks. Arguably, the greatest test for the campaign will be when the Premier League kicks off next weekend. Greater attention will be paid to the refereeing decisions in these more high-profile matches.

If the ‘Respect’ campaign is to have any chance of succeeding, it needs to start at the very top. In recent seasons, Ferguson, Wenger and Mourinho have all been guilty of unacceptable behaviour towards officials. The managers and coaches need to set the examples that are to be followed on the pitch. Only then will respect towards referees and assistants filter down to the lower levels.

Perhaps the key to having respect shown to match officials is that players, coaches and fans have to acknowledge that mistakes are going to be made throughout the course of game, and the course of a season. The referees are, after all, only human.

Yes, it is extremely frustrating when a decision goes against your team, but referees don’t make bad decisions on purpose, it is just part and parcel of the game we love, and without these moments of decision controversy football would become less enthralling. I’m not condoning bad decisions, merely suggesting that in their absence football wouldn’t quite stir the passions that it does. It’s just that these passions need to be released in alternative forms to disrespect and abuse.

Critics will suggest that this campaign doesn’t go far enough, that it is a laissez-faire measure. Maybe a more revolutionary step needs to be taken in order for dissent and disrespect to be completely eradicated. Many suggest that adopting the system used in rugby is needed. Attaching microphones to rugby officials enables everyone in attendance and watching on television to hear entire conversations between players and referees. The system has eradicated virtually all instances of dissent and foul language in professional rugby, and in the process naming and shaming those who show a lack of respect, ensuring that the evidence exists for which they can be held accountable.

One reason why the FA would be slow to adopt such a system lies in the fundamentals of the FA’s decision-making. Their belief is that changes made to the laws of the game need to be applicable at all levels, which is also a reason for the reluctance of the FA to introduce video replays into the game.

‘Respect’ has followed the example set by rugby in one sense though, as it has placed more emphasis on the role of captains in ensuring that order is kept within their ranks. Referees will attempt to communicate primarily with team captains about on-pitch events, so it is up to the captains to respond appropriately to the greater behavioural expectancy placed upon them.

The overall aim for the FA’s campaign is to increase the number of qualified referees in the country from its current figure of 26,000 to the 34,000 mark, which would ensure that every organised game will have its own match official. The main obstacle in achieving this figure is not the recruitment of officials, but the retaining of them. If successful, the ‘Respect’ campaign should go a long way towards reducing the number of referees giving up due to the disrespect they suffer.

Surely the time has come to once and for all eradicate the disrespect evident at the highest level of the game, and in so doing, hope that it will benefit the game as a whole, not just in England, but in every location around the world that the Premier League and Football League reaches.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News