By Oliver Trust
BERLIN, June 22 (Xinhua) -- The contrast between a glorious past and the sobering reality couldn't be more stark when it comes to one of Germany's football institutions, the struggling FC Kaiserslautern (FCK).
Younger football fans might not even know the club's name as a downfall to insignificance has marked its recent years.
Older supporters might have witnessed the unique success story of the "Red Devils" as a club that, more than all others, influenced the rapid development of the leading sport in the country after the Second World War.
Now a last attempt to save the FCK is in progress. Crashing down to the third-tier or filing for insolvency seems to last the remaining options to allow a restart. 125 insolvency cases are noted in German football. The case of the four-time national champion is the one attracting the most attention.
It's a tragic story about betrayed heritage, misleading overconfidence, and the club as a vital part of people's daily life.
History books are filled with stunning chapters of sporting heroes such as the Walter brothers. Fritz and Ottmar were part of the German team's backbone, surprisingly taking the 1954 World Cup win triggering a wave of euphoria in a war-torn country.
In 1998 coach Otto Rehhagel led the club to the national title for the last time.
It was the first time a league newcomer outpaced established rivals. The Bavarian icon Paul Breitner in 1982 assumed it might be better to deliver the points by mail to Kaiserslautern before kick-off as the FCK would win the game in the dying minutes anyway.
The FCK acted like a fighting machine, often turning clashes to good seconds before the final whistle.
In 2020, fans celebrate the most likely successful battle against relegation in the third division. Thousands nail-bitingly follow the action taking place off the pitch as existing debtors need to accept losses to make way for an ominous new investor to get rid of a debt of 24 million euros (about 26.9 million US dollars).
With overdriven confidence, the club expanded its arena, the Fritz-Walter stadium. The FCK applied as a venue for the 2006 World Cup. Having to pay a gigantic rent of 3.2 million euros (about 3.6 million US dollars) per season turned out to be a too heavy load.
The city council bought the arena to help, passing on the costs to the taxpayers. State politics fatally was involved encouraging the club leaders to take incalculable risks.
Police and tax investigators were regular visitors detecting tax evasions as players officially received small monthly wages while the significant part was paid for personal rights to foreign accounts.
Outsourcing the professional section didn't help as well as a bond among fans failed. Meanwhile, the entire club, including the non-professional parts, are under threat to be dismantled.
Items of historical relevance such as the title trophies collected in 120 years could be downgraded to speculations objects.
June 30 is the new deadline until things need to be fixed with the new investors' demands not to pay for old burdens.
The concept is speaking of a return to the Bundesliga over the upcoming years.
Optimism seems still alive around the Palatinate club, as former FIFA-referee and board-member Markus Merk courageously announces: "The FCK is indestructible." Enditem
