The 1997–98 Bundesliga was the 35th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. It began on 1 August 1997 and ended on 9 May 1998. FC Bayern Munich were the defending champions. FC Kaiserslautern won the Bundesliga on 1 May 1998 with one match remaining, the only time to date that a newly promoted team has won the league.

Competition modus Every team played two games against each other team, one at home and one away. Teams received three points for a win and one point for a draw. If two or more teams were tied on points, places were determined by goal difference and, if still tied, by goals scored. The team with the most points were crowned champions while the three teams with the fewest points were relegated to 2. Bundesliga.

Team changes to 1996–97 Fortuna Düsseldorf, SC Freiburg and FC St. Pauli were relegated to the 2. Bundesliga after finishing in the last three places. They were replaced by 1. FC Kaiserslautern, VfL Wolfsburg and Hertha BSC.

Season overview The 1997–98 Bundesliga battle for the championship was fought between FC Bayern Munich and 1. FC Kaiserslautern. Bayern were the defending champions after having won their 14th German title (their 13th Bundesliga title) in the 1996–97 season while Kaiserslautern were re-promoted to the Bundesliga; they had won the 1996–97 2. Bundesliga season with a ten-point margin after their first Bundesliga relegation at the end of the 1995–96 season. Kaiserslautern was coached by Otto Rehhagel who had been sacked as Bayern coach in the spring of 1996.

Coincidentally, the fixture table was such that both clubs met directly at the first match day. At Munich Olympic Stadium, Kaiserslautern achieved a surprising 1–0 away win. After another win (1–0 against Hertha BSC) they were at the top of the league table after matchday two. They regained this top position after matchday four and eventually stayed there until the end of the season. After the end of the first half of the season, Kaiserslautern was four points ahead of Bayern, and while it was expected by many that the second direct encounter at Fritz-Walter-Stadion would be the start of an eventual change at the top, FCK again beat Bayern, this time 2–0, resulting in a seven-point margin between the two teams after matchday 18. Remarkable matchdays in terms of who would win the championship included round 23 and 24, when Bayern lost two matches in a row, while FCK managed to collect four points. Bayern never overtook Kaiserslautern during the whole season, and after matchday 33, with FCK beating VfL Wolfsburg 4–0 at home while Bayern only achieving a 0–0 draw at MSV Duisburg, Kaiserslautern were the early champions, with four points ahead with only one match remaining. They were the first team in Bundesliga history to win the championship as a newly promoted team.

Another surprise of the season was FC Hansa Rostock who just missed qualification for the UEFA Cup, and all three newly promoted teams avoided relegation. At the bottom of the table, Arminia Bielefeld was the first team to be relegated, while 1. FC Köln had to go down after a 2–2 draw against Bayer Leverkusen in the final match of the season, ending a consecutive 35-year run of Bundesliga seasons for Cologne and leaving Hamburger SV as the "dinosaur" of the league (that is, the only Bundesliga founding member that had never been relegated until 2018). Karlsruher SC left the league after eleven seasons, while Borussia Mönchengladbach escaped relegation on the last matchday.

Team overview

Club Location Ground Capacity Berlin Olympiastadion 76,000 Bielefeld Stadion Alm 22,512 Bochum Ruhrstadion 36,344 Bremen Weserstadion 36,000 Dortmund Westfalenstadion 55,000 Duisburg Wedaustadion 30,128 Hamburg Volksparkstadion 62,000 Kaiserslautern Fritz-Walter-Stadion 38,500 Karlsruhe Wildparkstadion 33,800 Cologne Müngersdorfer Stadion 55,000 Leverkusen BayArena 22,500 Mönchengladbach Bökelbergstadion 34,500 Munich Olympiastadion 63,000 Munich Olympiastadion 63,000 Rostock Ostseestadion 25,850 Gelsenkirchen Parkstadion 70,000 Stuttgart Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion 53,700 Wolfsburg VfL-Stadion am Elsterweg 21,600

League table

Results

Top goalscorers Rank Player Club Goals1 Ulf Kirsten Bayer Leverkusen222 Olaf Marschall 1. FC Kaiserslautern213 Stéphane Chapuisat Borussia Dortmund14 Michael Preetz Hertha BSC5 Fredi Bobic VfB Stuttgart13 Carsten Jancker Bayern Munich Jörgen Pettersson Borussia Mönchengladbach Toni Polster 1. FC Köln Roy Präger VfL Wolfsburg Bernhard Winkler 1860 Munich

Attendances

Source:

No. Team Attendance Change Highest 1 Bayern München 54,529 -6.1% 69,000 2 Borussia Dortmund 54,206 2.1% 55,000 3 Hertha BSC 52,895 201.7% 76,000 4 Schalke 04 50,285 28.5% 71,017 5 VfB Stuttgart 39,582 -6.9% 53,000 6 1. FC Kaiserslautern 38,000 3.6% 38,000 7 TSV 1860 33,624 -13.3% 69,900 8 Hamburger SV 33,105 11.3% 58,000 9 Werder Bremen 30,213 -1.1% 35,883 10 1. FC Köln 29,824 -4.1% 47,000 11 Borussia Mönchengladbach 27,435 -9.0% 34,500 12 Karlsruher SC 26,769 -1.2% 33,600 13 VfL Bochum 26,698 -6.0% 31,500 14 Bayer Leverkusen 22,253 7.3% 22,500 15 Arminia Bielefeld 21,460 1.3% 22,512 16 Hansa Rostock 18,841 -0.7% 24,800 17 VfL Wolfsburg 17,025 179.3% 21,600 18 MSV Duisburg 16,623 -14.4% 30,128

See also 1997–98 2. Bundesliga 1997–98 DFB-Pokal

References

External links DFB Bundesliga archive 1997/1998