Snow in spring, crocus blossoms in Advent, autumn champions in January – surely climate change is to blame for such phenomena!? Incorrect! FC Bayern Munich is not the latest autumn champion of the Bundesliga thanks to its 1-0 win on Saturday in Mönchengladbach. Don’t be afraid.
In the past, games were often canceled in winter due to the weather. In the 1987/88 season, for example, Werder Bremen only secured the title of autumn champions on February 16, 1988. The game against Schalke 04 on matchday 17 (November 21, 1987) was canceled and could only be rescheduled on February 16, 1988. Bremen won 5-0 and were retroactively autumn champions.
In the 1981/82 season, 1. FC Köln only secured the autumn championship on March 9th. His game on matchday 17 (December 19, 1981) at 1. FC Kaiserslautern was canceled several times and could ultimately only be rescheduled three months later. A 1-1 draw was enough for Cologne to qualify for the autumn championship.
The latest autumn champion ever was Werder Bremen on March 19, 1991 – two days before the start of spring. The Bremen team didn’t even have to play that day. As league leaders, they had won their game on matchday 17 on December 14, 1990 2-1 in Bochum, but they had to wait for the outcome of the game between pursuers 1. FC Kaiserslautern and 1. FC Köln. This encounter was scheduled three times and had to be canceled three times due to snowfall. It wasn’t until March 19th that it finally worked. But instead of the victory required for the autumn championship title, Kaiserslautern only managed a 2-2 draw against Cologne.
This meant that the Bremen team had retroactively secured the title of autumn champions at a time when they were only third in the table on matchday 21. And not just that! With the two late autumn championship titles in February 1988 and March 1991, Bremen has been Germany’s record late autumn champion for 34 years. A title that SV Werder, incomprehensibly, does not have on its letterhead.
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