GERMAN champions Bayern Munich are currently one of the most dominant teams in the history of German football, but will not rest in their pursuit of complete success across the domestic leagues.

Last month, Bayern secured their eighth consecutive Bundesliga title with two games to go, seeing off what in the end turned out to be a fairly limp challenge from Borussia Dortmund.

There is no comparable period of dominance in the Bundesliga since its formation in 1963. The next most successful run of consecutive title wins was Borussia Monchengladbach’s three titles from 1975 to 1977, and Bayern’s own three in a row between 1985 and 1987.

On top of this, Bayern have won the domestic double in five of the last eight seasons, claiming the DFB Pokal (the German equivalent of the FA Cup) in 2020, 2019, 2016, 2014 and in 2013, when they also won the Champions League under Jupp Heynckes to secure a historic treble.

The only German side that can trump this dominance is East German club Berliner FC Dynamo. They won 10 consecutive DDR-Oberliga (GDR Premier League) titles from 1979 to 1988, but since German reunification in 1990 have found themselves in the lower leagues and this season finished sixth in the fourth-tier Regionalliga Nordost.

Bayern Munich, too, have a presence in the lower leagues, and their dominance was highlighted further as their second team, Bayern Munich II, were crowned champions of the third division (3. Liga) earlier this month.

The club now want to go one further and see this reserve side promoted to the 2. Bundesliga, a move not possible due to rules that state reserve sides cannot play in the top two divisions.

Bayern president Herbert Hainer believes it might be time to rethink these rules.

“It is understandable that two teams from one club cannot play in the same league,” he told Bayern members’ magazine, 51.

“But in the first and second division, why not? I think that in Germany we should definitely think about it.”

Spanish second teams, or B teams as they are known, are allowed to play in the second division of Spanish football, and it’s something managers arriving in England from Spain have tried to encourage here.

Back in 2007 while manager of Liverpool, Rafa Benitez floated the idea of a Liverpool reserve side playing in the lower divisions.

“I would like to see reserve teams of the big clubs like ourselves playing in the Football League,” he said. “Why not if they have enough quality?

“It will bridge the gap between the youngsters and the first team. If you do not give young players the chance to play competitive football and to learn things, things become impossible.”

Giving competitive experience to youth players is always one of the arguments used in favour of such a move, but this is only an issue in the first place because big clubs like to hoard young talent, often stunting the growth of some young footballers as much as they develop others.

More recently, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, whose first title as a manager was a Spanish fourth-tier win with Barcelona B in 2008, has regularly bemoaned the lack of competitiveness in the English reserve leagues and has hinted at a B team structure similar to Spain.

“They play between each other at young age groups in front of no spectators,” Guardiola said in 2017.

“The second teams in Spain, at Barcelona or Real Madrid, play in front of 40,000 people every weekend in the second division.

“In Germany, they are so tough, so demanding, they are playing with guys who are 28, 29 or 30 and that is the best way to improve, not [just] training with the first team sometimes.”

It could be argued the closest thing to a senior reserve competition in England is the League Cup, as first-team players are often rested due to the packed schedule and teams at all levels prioritising league games or other targets.

It’s therefore no surprise that City have won this competition in five of the last seven seasons due to the squad depth their riches have allowed them to assemble. They can even afford to regularly sit Ballon d’Or nominees Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez on their bench.

The issue of unfettered spending has been raised again this week after City’s ban from Uefa competitions was overturned by the court of arbitration for sport. But regardless of any rules around financial fair play, and the true fairness or effectiveness of these rules, such dominance at the top level by any club, whether on the back of financial power or sporting dominance, should at least warn that allowing them a second team in the same league structure would be unhealthy for the game.

It would limit the opportunities for, and potentially stunt the progress of other unique clubs further down the leagues. It would only add to the number of increasingly nondescript, characterless capitalist franchises who are steadily losing their own identity, and threaten to engulf the football landscape at the top level.

And when it comes to the development of young players, the problem isn’t that they aren’t given the chance to develop in the reserve teams of these European superclubs, the problem is that these clubs are hoarding the best young talents in the first place.

Bayern have every right to celebrate their recent sustained success. It is a period of sporting achievement that will do down in history, especially thanks to that European Cup win under Heynckes. 

They are also among the favourites to win this season’s Champions League which will resume next month, and a second treble would further add to their remarkable achievements in recent years.

It might even be referred to as a quadruple given Bayern II’s 3. Liga triumph, but in doing so they have denied another team, in this case second-place Wurzburger Kickers, a chance to add a league title win and make history of their own.

Rather than being allowed into the 2. Bundesliga, Bayern II and the other reserve sides should be removed from the German leagues altogether, giving more clubs chances to write their own stories, just as Bayern (I) are writing theirs.