FC Bayern Munich (German: FC Bayern München) is a German sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional football team, which is the most successful club in German football, having won 21 German titles and 14 cups.The club was founded in 1900 by eleven football players led by Franz John.Although Bayern won its first national championship in 1932, the club was not selected for the Bundesliga at its inception in 1963. In the middle of the 1970s, the club had its period of greatest success, when the famous team led by Franz Beckenbauer won the European Cup three times in row (1974–76). In recent years they have been by far the most successful team in German football, winning seven of the last ten championships. The club's last international title was the Intercontinental Cup in 2001.
Since the beginning of the 2005–06 season, Munich plays its home games in the Allianz Arena. Previously the team had played for 33 years in the Olympic Stadium. The team colours are red and white, and the team crest shows the colours of Bavaria.
Bayern is a membership-based club and with more than 147,000 members. There are also more than 2,400 officially-registered fan clubs with about 177,000 members.[5] The club has other departments for chess, handball, basketball, gymnastics, bowling, table tennis, referees, and senior football with more than 1,100 active members from 1998–2004 Bayern were coached by Ottmar Hitzfeld.
In Hitzfeld's first season, Bayern won the Bundesliga and came close to winning the Champions League, losing 2–1 to Manchester United in injury time after leading for most of the match. The 1999–2000 season resulted in Bayern winning their third league and cup double. A third consecutive Bundesliga title followed in 2001, won in a finish on the final day of the league season. Days later, Bayern won the Champions League for the fourth time after a 25 year gap, defeating Valencia CF on penalties. The 2001–02 season began with a win in the International Cup, but ended trophyless otherwise. A season later Bayern won their fourth double, leading the league by a record margin.reign ended in 2004, with Bayern underperforming, including a cup defeat by second division Alemannia Aachen.
Felix Magath took over and led Bayern to two consecutive Doubles. Prior to the start of the 2005–06 season, Bayern moved from the Olympic Stadium to the new Allianz Arena, which the club shares with TSV 1860. On the field their performance in 2006–07 was erratic. Trailing in the league and having lost to Alemannia Aachen in the cup yet again, coach Magath was sacked shortly after the winter break.
Former Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld returned to Munich in January 2007, but Bayern finished the 2006–07 season fourth, thus failing to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in more than a decade. Additional losses in the DFB Cup and the League Cup left the club with no honours for the season. For the 2007–08 season, Bayern Munich made drastic squad changes to help retool and rebuild. They signed a total of eight new players and sold, released or loaned out nine of their existing players. Luca Toni from ACF Fiorentina, Miroslav Klose from Werder Bremen and record signing Franck Ribery from Olympique Marseille headlined the signings. The new additions paid off, as the Reds went on to win the 2008 DFB-Pokal and the Bundesliga, being on top of the standings on every single week of play.
On January 11, 2008 it was announced that Jürgen Klinsmann would succeed Ottmar Hitzfeld as Manager on July 1, 2008. He signed a two year contract. During the first half of the 2008–09 Bundesliga season, Bayern got off to a rocky start, winning just two games until day six. Eventually Bayern finished the first round second to 1899 Hoffenheim. In the DFB-Pokal Bayern is amongst the last 8, playing their next game at Bayer 04 Leverkusen. In the Champions League Bayern is also amongst the last 16, after winning Group F in front of Olympique Lyonnais, ACF Fiorentina and Steaua Bucharest. They have faced Sporting Lisbon in the Round of 16 beating them 0–5 away from home and now seemed destined for the quater-finals of the Champions League.
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