Leeds, Bayern, sport, money, glory, power: building up to the European Cup final, May 1975

Leeds United and Bayern Munich both needed to win the European Cup in 1975. It wasn't a wish, a desire, or a nice-to-have. It was a need within them. But not all needs are the same.

For Leeds, the team needed to win because, despite captain Billy Bremner's claim that he and other players could keep going beyond their tenth final to win their third league title and reach the European Cup final again, deep down, he knew that wasn't true. This final was their last chance to achieve a dream Don Revie had in Glasgow, in 1960, watching Real Madrid winning the European Cup and thinking, that's what I want Leeds United to do. That final was the reason Revie had changed the team colours to all white. That was the goal that Bremner, Paul Reaney, Norman Hunter and Johnny Giles, the longest serving of the Leeds players heading to Paris for the match, had been working towards since Revie brought them together and brought them up in those new colours, with that new dream. It was a dream nobody in Leeds had really had before, but Revie and his players had worked together to make it real, from nothing. Six of 1975's team had played together in Leeds' first ever European match, a 2-1 win over Torino at Elland Road in September 1965, and perhaps it was an omen that the 1975 European Cup final would reunite them with that night's referee, Michel Kitabdjian from France.

The European Cup was the prize that, from Britain, only Manchester United and Celtic had won, the proof that the successes of those teams deserved to be written down among the greatest in the world. Leeds, although they'd dominated English and European football for a decade, never finishing outside the top four in nine First Division seasons, would feel a little poorer if they couldn't press the seal of European champions onto their scroll of achievements. They had won all the jewels. They needed the crown, and this was their last chance.

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Bayern Munich's need was quite different. They were dominant in West Germany, winning four of the previous six Bundesliga titles, finishing 2nd the other times. They hadn't been at the top as long as Leeds, or in such a strong league, but they had won the European Cup: in fact they were the holders, after winning it for the first time by beating Atletico Madrid in 1974. The team had won everything, five of them — six before Paul Breitner was sold — playing and winning in the 1972 European Championship final and the 1974 World Cup final, too. It wasn't the Bayern Munich team that needed to win the European Cup in 1975, the way the Leeds team needed it. They'd slaked their ambition. It was the Bayern Munich club.

In 1972 Bayern's president, Wilhelm Neudecker, warned that the club could only keep its highly paid team together by playing European matches and exhibition games. The domestic league alone wouldn't pay the club's bills and Neudecker had been working the first team hard, making them earn their wages with midweek and summer friendlies across Europe and beyond. 1974/75 had begun amid great tension as the Bundesliga and European champions, half of whom had spent their summer winning the World Cup, were thrown into another season under the same pressure to keep winning and keep making money. They began their Bundesliga campaign, after flying straight to Frankfurt from a pre-season tournament in Spain, by losing 6-0 to Kickers Offenbach. They almost failed to defend the European Cup at the first hurdle, in the most embarrassing way. The first round sent them to FC Magdeburg, in East Germany, a politically and diplomatically sensitive tie that should have been easier to deal with than it eventually was, 5-3 on aggregate. Relief only lasted as long as it took for Neudecker to fly them all to Tokyo, for two lucrative mid-season friendlies against the Japan national team.

The players were tired, and fractious. Where Don Revie had created a family atmosphere that kept the team together and hungry for glory through a decade at the top, Bayern had grown sick of each other on their way to the top, stuffed to bursting with success and loathing. The players were constantly arguing with the sporting director, Robert Schwan, about their contracts. It didn't help that he also acted as the captain Franz Beckenbauer's personal manager, creating a schism between the star players and the journeymen, who felt they were being screwed by the guy who was making their famous teammate richer. Midfielder Franz Roth was looking forward to a summer transfer to FC Zurich, not knowing yet how Schwan would later block it because no replacement player would come for as little as he was paying Roth. These frustrations had spilled over into the players' relationships. "If I'm honest, we were glad we didn't have to meet in our private lives," said Roth. "It was almost at the limit of what was bearable back then."

It looked like even playing football was more than many of them could stomach. With everything won already, the Bundesliga had become a boring grind, and so had Bayern's play. If they weren't arguing about money, they were blaming each other for not winning games, and since selling Breitner to Real Madrid they'd become sullen and robotic. Only the big European Cup matches interested them now, and it was about all their minds and bodies could take anyway — "Two games, every four to six weeks - that was enough concentration," said Uli Hoeness. The Bundesliga and European champions were down to 14th in the table, two points above the relegation places, when Dettmar Cramer took over as coach in January. Beckenbauer had helped choose Udo Lattek for the manager's job in 1970 and now he he'd put Cramer forward as his replacement. They had history — when Beckenbauer had been banned from international football for refusing to marry his pregnant girlfriend, in 1963, Cramer had sorted things out so Beckenbauer could rejoin the West German national youth team. Now, Cramer told the Bayern players, "You are a dying team," but this was not a Brian Clough style harangue. Cramer was more like Bayern's Jimmy Armfield, trying to soothe and cajole quality players back to their best.

But he also had to manage the expectations from above. If the players lost in Paris, Neudecker said, "It has been presented in the press that I will then turn off the money tap — as if that were not a natural consequence. The club cannot spend more than it earns. Since the salaries are mainly based on income from international matches, everyone will realise that there is less money if less is done."

The wage bill at Bayern was 10.5 million Deutschmarks a year. Income from the Bundesliga was 4.5 million a year. Without winning the European Cup and so qualifying for it again, the only option then would be selling players, players who would be worth less without the prestige of being in European competition, players who were on their way to finishing a mediocre 10th in the Bundesliga. Even if Bayern could keep the team together, the top players like Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller and Sepp Maier had contracts that guaranteed their wages, while others like Hoeness had contractually obliged wage cuts of a third if the club was not in Europe. The discord over money would only increase, and the amount available would decrease. Victory in Paris was needed to keep this expensive, precarious show on the road. Losing would mean financial and sporting oblivion.

There were money worries in Leeds, too, especially since the board had blown £100,000 on paying off Brian Clough for 44 days of so-called work, and £400,000 on buying the players he wanted. The First Division paid better than the Bundesliga, though, so the board felt confident of soon refilling the bank account. They were helped, too, that there were fewer arguments about money among the Leeds players. The bond Don Revie had created within the team meant the players just wanted to keep playing together and keep playing for Leeds, and the directors had turned this to their advantage by keeping the wage bill low. The trade-off had been large bonuses for success, but Revie's scheme only paid until qualification for a final — there had been no bonus for winning other than pride, a medal and the cup. That had changed by 1975, and the players would get £5,000 each for winning in Paris — but that was still around £2,000 less than was being promised to each player by Bayern. While reaching the final, the Leeds players had made around half what the Bayern players had in bonuses, and at Munich it was not unusual for the president to go into the dressing room at half-time to offer more money for winning that day. The Leeds board perhaps didn't realise how fortunate they were to have a squad so focused on glory, rather than money.

United's main problem ahead of the final was keeping themselves in shape. Their last league fixture was on 28th April, and the European Cup final wasn't until the 28th May. That month was a confusing mixture of rest, international football and friendly matches. Don Revie, now the England manager, excused Leeds players from his squads during the month. Gordon McQueen was suspended for the final, so he played for Scotland while Bremner, Peter Lorimer, the Grays et al sat out. Terry Yorath captained Wales for their first two fixtures of May, but not the latter two nearest the final. Johnny Giles was player-manager of Ireland and picked himself for all three of their games despite only recently recovering from broken ribs. Leeds played friendlies in Norway against SK Brann, at Elland Road against a Don Revie XI for Norman Hunter's testimonial, at Walsall for Nick Atthey's testimonial, and in front of just 9,000 people at Hampden Park, losing 3-2 to Scotland Under-23s. Although they lost, 'Even at half-pace the European Cup pretenders contrived to look menacing,' wrote one reporter, and the match was taken seriously enough for Scotland's Alfie Conn, after tussling with Bremner, to yell at the Leeds captain, "Go home, you English git!"

Bremner was focused on going to Paris. There, Leeds found Bayern Munich attempting the most basic pre-match mind games. Franz Beckenbauer was sounding cautious: "We can only beat Leeds by playing our best and, above all, we can't afford a single failure," he said. His coach Dettmar Cramer wasn't even sounding cautious, declaring, "Leeds will win. They will beat us because we have too many players who are too old, while the younger ones are not experienced enough yet. I have seen Leeds many times this season and they are a good side, they have so many good players. Joe Jordan will trouble us in the air — he is one of the best headers of the ball in Europe. The last year has been decisive for Bayern — we are too old now. And it is hard to motivate the players after they have been through more than 100 matches already this season."

Privately, Cramer, renowned for his intelligence and knowledge, was 'now a walking "Leeds encyclopaedia",' wrote Kicker. 'Tell him the name of a Leeds player, Cramer will close his eyes for a moment and then "spit out" facts and figures, important and unimportant information, like a computer.' And while there was perhaps more truth in what Cramer was saying about his team's lack of motivation than people outside Munich realised, the European Cup matches were the games the players could still get excited for. Frustrated about his salary and sure he was going to leave, Franz Roth said later that he, "ran onto the pitch with anger in my stomach." There was also the question of the 40,000 marks bonus for each player if they won.

Leeds, in any case, weren't falling for all the talk. "People may be trying to make us favourites but I will have none of it," said Jimmy Armfield. "With players of the calibre of Müller, Beckenbauer, Maier, and Hoeness, Bayern could turn the game in a flash. It's up to us to hit our peak form tomorrow night and so far I'm happy with the way our preparations have gone.

"It is difficult to say how this month without a serious match will affect our chances, but from what I can see the lads are fit and sharp. It is going to be a tight final because we are so well matched. I would like us to play well, but it is far more important that we win."

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Johnny Giles, writing his newspaper column shortly after the semi-finals, had decided not to worry too much about their opponents. 'Leeds United have never been better equipped to win the European Cup than they are now,' he wrote. 'Such is the experience and football ability in the current Leeds first team squad that I am convinced we will overcome Bayern Munich ... without wishing to give the impression that I am under-rating Bayern, I do feel that Leeds have reached a stage where we can afford to allow our opponents to do most of the worrying about us.'

On the eve of the match, his midfield partner Billy Bremner was also focused on Leeds, and facing up to the future. He was no longer pretending Leeds would get another chance like this, and what he wanted from the week, from his career, was a photo of himself lifting the European Cup. "It is our last fling," he told John Rafferty of The Scotsman. "I'm now 32. Five of us have been together since Don Revie first took us into Europe ten years ago. We are not even in the European Cup next season, so how can we think ahead to the next one? We have lived like a family these past ten years. We have thought of only one trophy, this European Cup, and it is this time or never.

"If we play like Leeds United then we will win. We must play a composed game, a patient game. Our strength is in helping one another and this we must retain. We are a good team and no matter what happens we must remain one."

Don Revie, in Paris to commentate for the BBC and to watch his players top the mountain he'd set them to climbing, agreed that all Leeds United had to do was be Leeds United, and win. "This is what many of this team have been building for over the last ten years," he said, "and having got this far I cannot see them throwing it away." ⭑彡