"...because above all, Bayern Athens Club was a story of love, passion and devotion to the most unique Football Club in the world, FC Bayern München!"

Many years ago, in fact in 1997, few individuals, having as a common denominator their love for FC Bayern, began to think the embodiment of a challenging idea; the creation of a formal body of FC Bayern fans, thus bringing together the Club's friends across Greece. The years went by and despite the fact that these efforts transformed into a Fan Club, after getting the registration approval from official FC Bayern, its activities remained limited for many different reasons for quite awhile.

It was November of 2004, when the course of history for the movement of FC Bayern fans in Greece, meant to change forever. The incorporation of some new members in the Fan Club was that which reset this venture, set new goals and found new ways to accomplish them. At that time, the Red Helmet with the Bavarian rhombuses, followed by the name “Bayern Athens Club Crusaders 97”, made its first appearance. A name and an emblem, which for 12 consecutive years, constituted the most active and well-organised non-German Fan Club of FC Bayern in the world (according to the most qualified to have a say on the matter, the core of the Südkurve).

From the beginning, our goals were many, complex and hard to achieve. However, all of them had in common the uniting of FC Bayern's fans in Greece (fans, which as history proved, were an elite group among their compatriots), the sharing of knowledge about FC Bayern, to make known to the German fans that there are many more in Greece, whose heartbeat for FC Bayern and above all, the creation of a "bridge" for the Greek fans of FC Bayern that are 2.000 km away from their beloved Club, so that they can experience its reality first hand and become part of its history.

Besides, for these reasons in all those years, we came across and truly were hard-hitting and with our announcements we tried to urge those, who seemed to love the Club (a love reaching as far as to just watch their favorite Club on TV) to really make a contribution. In fact, on many occasions, we received criticism regarding those announcements, but Bayern Athens Club never made "discounts" on truth, nor on the things that believed it was its duty to do and say. We never asked anyone for recognition and put in a good word for us; except those we thought that we should. We did not seek advertisement and fame, but much our activities and our deep understanding on very special matters (regarding the Club and its organised fans) made even the -for the most part- anti-German Greek Media to give us their attention. The times that we thought we should approach the Media ourselves, were those when we felt we had the obligation to restore the truth upon various -mostly of ethical nature- matters regarding the Club.

Trying to constantly improve, we managed to create and maintain for 10 consecutive seasons, the only Fan Club offices of FC Bayern that ever existed in Greece. In most of the 450 matches that we watched in our offices, we experienced moments that only Bayern Athens Club and that space could offer.

During our 12 years of history, we travelled almost 80 times to München, Berlin, Dortmund, Bremen, Milan, Rome, Madrid, Marseille, London, Manchester and Prague in order to support, not only the Football team, but also the Basketball team and the Bayern München Amateure team. We were the only Greek FC Bayern fans that were present in an organised way at the games of the Basketball team in Peace and Friendship Stadium and the Olympic Athletic Center of Athens, against Olympiacos and Panathinaikos, respectively and of course we were also present at the game of FC Bayern against Olympiacos at Karaiskakis stadium.

By means of our announcements and Bayern's Voice, the only radio show devoted exclusively to FC Bayern that ever existed in Greece and lasted for 4 years, we made sure to inform FC Bayern fans in Greece, not only about topics related to sports events, but also of the history, the tradition and the values that FC Bayern stands for. Bayern Athens Club, attending exclusively the Southern Stands of Allianz Arena, demonstrated to the Greek FC Bayern fans, the philosophy of the most loyal and active part of the Club’s fans, that of Südkurve.

The moment during the 2006 Cup Final in Berlin, where the organised fans of FC Bayern spotted our 20-meter "Bayern Athens Club" banner and gave us an applause as indication of recognition, will stay forever in our memory. Few years later, in 2012, the same organised fans alongside with us raised another Bayern Athens Club banner at the center of Südkurve. One year later, the association of FC Bayern fans (Club Nr.12) filled us with even more pride as they were announcing that we were the second -outside Germany- official FC Bayern Fan Club in registered members among its supporters. Throughout the years many head leaders of FC Bayern's Fan Clubs from and outside Germany, came to visit us, in order to see our offices; meet in person our members and take a closer look of our establishment.

During all those years, we never hesitated to oppose even the Club's administration, through letters or cosignatories, when we thought it was for FC Bayern’s and its supporters’ best interest. We are also honored by the fact that some Fan Clubs, outside Germany, contacted us to let us know that we became an inspiration to them in order to start a similar venture of bringing together FC Bayern's fans in their countries. During all this, in September of 2015 (shortly before the match against Olympiacos) we experienced another great moment of pride and proof of what Bayern Athens Club was really about in the eyes of Bayern's organised fans. The association of Bayern's organised fans asked us to make arrangements for the accommodation and transportation of 250 of its members to Athens and throughout the city on matchday.

The unprecedented -for a non-German FC Bayern Fan Club- activities of Bayern Athens Club did not take long to draw the attention of the official FC Bayern: A post on the Club's official Facebook page (the first for a Bayern Fan Club outside Germany) accompanied with a video containing some of our trips across Europe up until that time and a thank-you post on Twitter from the Basketball team for our presence and support at Peace and Friendship Stadium. We will never forget the moment, after the celebration of our 15th birthday when the Fan Club Department of FC Bayern requested a tribute about the Bayern Athens Club to be made in the official magazine of the Club, "Bayern Magazin", while at the same time, official FC Bayern administration, sent -among other valuable gifts- the Club's football jersey, signed by the players and the coach at that time, Jupp Heynkes, as a birthday gift. The highlight of recognition from FC Bayern regarding the Bayern Athens Club’s contribution to the Club, is the fact that in the new museum -which opened its doors for the public in June 2012- at the section dedicated to the Fan Clubs, FC Bayern singled out three Fan Clubs to make each a special tribute. The Bayern Athens Club was one of them.

All of the above, and many other examples of ethical and ideological approaches and accomplishments of our Fan Club -which cannot be fully described in a few lines- complete the picture of one of the three (BFC Zϋrich and Sϋdtirol being the other two) most active and hardcore -outside Germany- FC Bayern Fan Clubs up until today. And just to be clear, by speaking of "hardcore" we do not mean hooliganism, causing trouble or anything of the like, but consistency about our ideology, philosophy and devotion; in short, our DNA. Proof of that is our participation in every Charity Football Tournament between Greek Fan Clubs of foreign Football Clubs, which have taken place the last years in Athens, demonstrating our point of view that there may be things among the fans that drive them apart, but clearly there are things that can bring them together too.

From the beginning, our goals were many, complex and hard to achieve. For 12 years and for the sake of FC Bayern and its Greek fans (not only Fan Club’s members), Bayern Athens Club had the "gas pedal floored". Seeing today all those things we managed to achieve, we are certain that we fulfilled not just our original goals, but we also accomplished things we could never have imagined when we started our journey. Nothing was handed to us on a silver platter. We earned it with excessive caring, selflessness, many hours of hard work and devotion. So it was expected, that -at some point- saturation was imminent. For the last 12 years, we pushed ourselves and consequently the entire club to its limits (physical, mental, financial and every other kind). In many occasions we managed to cope. And we knew that saturation would eventually come at some point. But we never thought to "lift our foot from the pedal" in order to postpone it for a few years. There is nothing in life, which requires so much effort, focus, so much tenacity and patience; there is nothing in life, which does not consume so much energy and does not wear you out, no matter how much you love it. And saturation is meant to bring about deterioration. Somewhere at that point, the vast majority of the Bayern Athens Club members decided that, after the completion of this over successful 12-year journey, owed to itself not to live moments of decay.

There were alternatives. For example, we could reduce the number of activities. We could lower our high standards. Yes! That is what a mediocre Fan Club would do. But not us! Bayern Athens Club would never do that. We came with the "gas pedal floored" and we will step out the same way. Due to the idiosyncrasy and the DNA of Bayern Athens Club, we could never have settled with anything less than what we were used to in all those years.

So, with this post, Bayern Athens Club announces the suspension of its operation. Maybe it is hard for someone, who is not aware of the philosophy and the mentality of our Fan Club, to understand, but for us that decision was inevitable, but necessary. Bayern Athens Club decides to close down now, while it is still in its prime, active and proud, as it has been for all those years. The operation of this Fan Club is coming to an end, but all of its work and the mark that it left to the fans of FC Bayern, are so vivid that will stay forever! We rest assured as we feel the moral satisfaction having done our best to benefit FC Bayern, because we know that Bayern Athens Club supported its beloved Football Club in every possible way that a Fan Club could do, while the Club is thousands of kilometers away. The memories and the experiences of all who lived the reality of our Fan Club from within, will stay forever in our minds, because above all, Bayern Athens Club was a story of love, passion and devotion to the most unique Football Club in the world, FC Bayern München!

PROUD TO BE FC BAYERN
PROUD THAT THE BAYERN ATHENS CLUB EXISTED.

P.S: We thank all those who supported Bayern Athens Club during all those years, even if they were not members of our Fan Club.

BAYERN ATHENS CLUB CRUSADERS 97
26/7/2016