Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach make TV history in the first Bundesliga game broadcast nationwide 34 years ago today

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The Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach players are familiar faces to armchair football fans around the world now, but on 11 December, 1984, the players of the era's most successful teams were only starting their journey to becoming household names as the DFL broadcast the first Bundesliga game live on national TV in Germany.

Mönchengladbach's home game with Bayern at their iconic Bökelbergstadion two weeks before Christmas was the maiden top-flight match broadcast nationally, giving many fans in Germany a live glimpse of their football heroes for the very first time and a taste of what had been - and remains - a classic Bundesliga match-up.

There were two living legends on the bench: Jupp Heynckes, who would go on to lead Bayern to an unprecedented trophy treble in 2012/13, was in his first senior coaching role with the hosts; in the opposite dug-out, Udo Lattek, who had preceded Heynckes as Gladbach coach and had won back-to-back Bundesliga titles in 1976 and '77 with the Foals as well as guiding them to the 1978/79 UEFA Cup.

- © imago
- © imago