1860 Munich in chaos after shame of relegation to third tier

Police officers and orderlies secure the pitch at the 80th minute after Munich fans started to riot during the first half of the relegation match between TSV’1860 Munich and Jahn Regensburg

Former Bundesliga champion 1860 Munich’s relegation to Germany’s third division has plunged the club into chaos amid recriminations over who is responsible for its demise.

“Nobody around the club ever expected or wanted that we dropped to the third division,” 1860 said on its website yesterday. “We know that this scenario is not acceptable for the whole ‘Lions’ family.”

Equipped with the third most expensive squad in the second division after Stuttgart and Hannover, which both secured their return to the Bundesliga, 1860 finished third from bottom. It was relegated Tuesday after a playoff defeat to Jahn Regensburg, a team that had been playing fourth-tier football the season before.

1860’s 2-0 defeat at home in the second leg was marred by violence from angry fans, shouting “we’re fed up,” as objects, including seats, were flung onto the pitch toward the end of the match. Around 1,000 riot police lined up to prevent the situation escalating as the game was held up for 15 minutes. Munich police said 10 officers were slightly injured. “A shameful evening in Froettmaning,” Kicker magazine said of the neighborhood where 1860 shares its stadium with city rival Bayern Munich.

1860, which won the Bundesliga in 1966 and had played in the top flight as recently as 2004, returned to the third level for the first time in 24 years.

It’s just the latest in a series of embarrassing setbacks for the club, funded primarily by Jordanian investor Hasan Ismaik, who had promised to lead it to the top levels of European football.

Those aspirations after years of mismanagement had fueled 1860’s summer spending spree. Only Stuttgart spent more, though that was offset by sales after its relegation from the Bundesliga. 1860 brought in players like Stefan Aigner from Eintracht Frankfurt and Brazilian forward Ribamar from Botafogo. Croatian veteran Ivica Olic joined on a free transfer from Hamburger SV, believing, like many, that 1860 was a club on the way up.

But the season didn’t go as planned. Kosta Runjaic was fired as coach amid acrimony in November after seven defeats and just two wins from 12 league games. 1860 was also knocked out of the German Cup in the second round.

Sports director Thomas Eichin followed Runjaic out of the club; chief scout Peer Jaekel was next to go. All three subsequently brought proceedings against 1860.

Daniel Bierofka took over as interim coach, the latest at a club where no coach had seen through a whole season since Rainer Maurer from July 2010 to November 2012.

Former Porto coach Vitor Pereira was eventually appointed in December to turn 1860’s season around, but even he had no answers when the worst was confirmed on Tuesday. “It pains me immensely that the project failed,” the Portuguese coach said. “My conscience is clear that I did all I could.” Pereira is unlikely to hang around in the third division.

1860 president Peter Cassalette resigned after the match. The club announced that chief executive Ian Ayre, the former Liverpool chief executive who only took up the position in April, had already tendered his resignation before the game.

Ayre was scathing in his criticism of 1860’s backers, telling the Liverpool Echo newspaper: “Unfortunately, during my short eight week tenure I have found an organization in which the shareholders are not aligned in a common interest, nor have a shared vision for the future of the club.”

The German football federation is investigating the disturbances that marred the end of the game and 1860 faces heavy consequences. “It’s a catastrophe,” 1860 midfielder Michael Liendl said.

Whether the club continues to share a stadium with unpopular neighbor Bayern remains open. TV revenues are also set to go down. To make matters worse, 1860’s under-21, under-19, under-17 and under-16 teams were all also relegated this season. Ciaran Fahey, Berlin, AP