Bayern Munich to play “rescue game” to benefit 1. FC Kaiserslautern

FC Bayern Munich announced on Wednesday that they will travel west to Kaiserslautern on May 27th for a friendly against 1. FC Kaiserslautern. All of the proceeds from the match will go to the home team in hopes that they will earn enough to pay for their license for the 3. Liga. Kaiserslautern was in the Bundesliga until 2012 when they were relegated. They remained in the 2. Bundesliga until 2018, when they were relegated to the 3. Liga.

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge had this to say about the Rekordmeister’s trip to Kaiserslautern.

1. FC Kaiserslautern is one of the greatest traditional clubs in Germany. For many years there were very intense and — looking back — legendary FC Bayern games in Kaiserslautern. Soccer lives lives on emotion and athletic rivalry, but also on solidarity. This is why we will gladly help and hope that 1. FC Kaiserslautern will be promoted into the Bundesliga again in the foreseeable future.

Many people were involved in coming up with the idea to invite FC Bayern to Kaiserslautern. Kaiserlautern’s managing director praised FC Bayern for their support.

We are excited that FC Bayern Munich has agreed so soon to play a friendly against us on the Betzenberg [the hill where Kaiserslautern’s stadium was built]. The revenue [from this game] is an important component in the framework of the licencing process. For the support we are grateful to the people in charge at FC Bayern, and we are excited for our meeting on May 27th.

This is not the first time that FC Bayern has helped a lower league team in this fashion. The first was in 2003, when Bayern played FC St. Pauli at the Millerntor in Hamburg. In 2017, they played in Offenbach to help the Offenbach Kickers avoid bankruptcy.