1997–98 Bundesliga


The 1997–98 Bundesliga was the 35th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. It began on 1 August 1997 and ended on 9 May 1998. FC Bayern Munich were the defending champions.

Competition modus

Every team played two games against each other team, one at home and one away. Teams received three points for a win and one point for a draw. If two or more teams were tied on points, places were determined by goal difference and, if still tied, by goals scored. The team with the most points were crowned champions while the three teams with the fewest points were relegated to 2. Bundesliga.

Team changes to 1996–97

, SC Freiburg and FC St. Pauli were relegated to the 2. Bundesliga after finishing in the last three places. They were replaced by 1. FC Kaiserslautern, VfL Wolfsburg and Hertha BSC.

Season overview

The 1997–98 Bundesliga battle for the championship was fought between FC Bayern Munich and 1. FC Kaiserslautern. Bayern were the defending champions after having won their 14th German title in the 1996–97 season while Kaiserslautern were re-promoted to the Bundesliga; they had won the 1996–97 2. Bundesliga season with a ten-point margin after their very first Bundesliga relegation at the end of the 1995–96 season. Kaiserslautern was coached by Otto Rehhagel who had been sacked as Bayern coach in the spring of 1996.
Coincidentally, the fixture table was such that both clubs met directly at the very first matchday. At Munich Olympic Stadium, Kaiserslautern achieved a surprising 1–0 away win. After another win they were at the top of the league table after matchday two. They regained this top position after matchday four and eventually stayed there until the end of the season. After the end of the first half of the season, Kaiserslautern was four points ahead of Bayern, and while it was expected by many that the second direct encounter at Fritz-Walter-Stadion would be the start of an eventual change at the top, FCK again beat Bayern, this time 2–0, resulting in a seven-point margin between the two teams after matchday 18. Remarkable matchdays in terms of who would win the championship included round 23 and 24, when Bayern lost two matches in a row, while FCK managed to collect four points. Bayern never overtook Kaiserslautern during the whole season, and after matchday 33, with FCK beating VfL Wolfsburg 4–0 at home while Bayern only achieving a 0–0 draw at MSV Duisburg, Kaiserslautern were the early champions, with four points ahead with only one match remaining. They were the first team in Bundesliga history to win the championship as a newly promoted team.
Another surprise of the season was FC Hansa Rostock who just missed qualification for the UEFA-Cup, and all three newly promoted teams avoided relegation. At the bottom of the table, Arminia Bielefeld was the first team to be relegated, while 1. FC Köln had to go down after a 2–2 draw against Bayer Leverkusen in the final match of the season, ending a consecutive 35-year run of Bundesliga seasons for Cologne and leaving Hamburger SV as the "dinosaur" of the league. Karlsruher SC left the league after eleven seasons, while Borussia Mönchengladbach escaped relegation on the last matchday.

Team overview

ClubLocationGroundCapacity
BerlinOlympiastadion76,000
BielefeldStadion Alm22,512
BochumRuhrstadion36,344
BremenWeserstadion36,000
DortmundWestfalenstadion55,000
DuisburgWedaustadion30,128
HamburgVolksparkstadion62,000
KaiserslauternFritz-Walter-Stadion38,500
KarlsruheWildparkstadion33,800
CologneMüngersdorfer Stadion55,000
LeverkusenBayArena22,500
MönchengladbachBökelbergstadion34,500
MunichOlympiastadion63,000
MunichOlympiastadion63,000
RostockOstseestadion25,850
GelsenkirchenParkstadion70,000
StuttgartGottlieb-Daimler-Stadion53,700
WolfsburgVfL-Stadion am Elsterweg21,600

League table

Results

Top goalscorers

;22 goals
;21 goals
;14 goals
;13 goals
1. FC Kaiserslautern
Goalkeepers: Andreas Reinke ; Lajos Szűcs .

Defenders: Michael Schjønberg ; Miroslav Kadlec ; Harry Koch ; Axel Roos ; Oliver Schäfer ; Roger Lutz ; Andreas Brehme ; János Hrutka .

Midfielders: Ciriaco Sforza ; Andreas Buck ; Martin Wagner ; Ratinho ; Marian Hristov ; Michael Ballack ; Thomas Riedl ; Frank Greiner ; Pascal Ojigwe .

Forwards: Marco Reich ; Jürgen Rische ; Olaf Marschall ; Pavel Kuka ; Stefan Ertl.

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Manager: Otto Rehhagel.
On the roster but have not played in a league game: Petr Kouba ; Thomas Franck.
Transferred out during the season:''' Petr Kouba .