Farmers' league? Bayern boss Kompany defends the Bundesliga | OneFootball

Vincent Kompany is well acquainted with top-tier European football. Ahead of the Champions League duel with FC Chelsea, the FC Bayern coach was confronted with a prejudice common in England - and responded with clear words.

At the press conference, an English reporter addressed the 39-year-old about the derogatory term "Farmers League" for the Bundesliga. Kompany did not leave this assessment uncommented: "But how many players have they bought from the Bundesliga? How much money have they spent on players from the Bundesliga?"

Respect for every league

The Belgian emphasized that he has a respectful view of all competitions. "I come from Belgium, a small country. In Belgium, we always look at larger countries and we respect every league. In Germany, people pay a lot of attention to the Bundesliga; in England, they pay a lot of attention to the Premier League."

For Kompany, it is clear that the Bundesliga has a high status in terms of talent promotion. English top clubs regularly turn to players from Germany - a sign of the quality the league offers.

Criticism of the financial imbalance

Kompany also addressed the economic imbalance in European football. "Obviously, there is a large financial gap between the Premier League and other leagues. We need to think about how we can solve this one day," explained the Bayern coach.

In the summer of 2025 alone, Premier League clubs invested almost 3.5 billion euros - a new record. The Bundesliga, in comparison, only managed around 856 million euros. It is becoming increasingly difficult for top clubs like FC Bayern to keep up with the sums from England.

CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen recently criticized the development on Sky: "The transfer business has undoubtedly become more complicated. We are seeing amounts that we could not have imagined a short time ago - especially the English clubs, who have done things this year that we first need to understand."

Bayern relies on stability

While the English big clubs dug deep into their pockets, FC Bayern deliberately kept their spending under the 100 million mark this summer. Nevertheless, notable reinforcements like Jonathan Tah, Nicolas Jackson, and Luis Díaz were signed. At the same time, the Munich-based club wants to give more opportunities to talents from their own ranks and sustainably shape the squad in the long term.

Kompany summed it up with a view to the duel against Chelsea: "The Bundesliga definitely has a lot of talent, English teams have bought many players from here. But tomorrow it's not about Bundesliga versus Premier League. It's Bayern versus Chelsea."

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.