Bundesliga's unique take on the progression of Youth - Why it's not successful in Europe's biggest competition

TSG Hoffenheim, with an average age of just 23.8, are the youngest side in the Bundesliga and maybe Europe.

Just yesterday, news came through from a press conference held by the DFB, which announced record breaking attendance numbers for the first half of the season. With an average of 44,345 spectators per game, the Bundesliga easily ranks the highest in Europe in attendance numbers.

That statistic has belonged to the Bundesliga for a good few years and with this years increasing numbers in face of stagnant growth within its rival leagues, the Bundesliga’s dominance in ticket sales looks set to continue into the future.

It hasn’t been difficult to figure out just what has brought about this surge in popularity. One of the major reasons was the staging of the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Not only did it rekindle the passion for the sport with in the country, but also the responsibility of hosting World Cup matches lead the German authorities to rebuild many of the popular stadiums.

With the continuous building and renovating of stadiums during the mid 2000′s, the Bundesliga saw their average attendance numbers gradually increase by almost 4000 from 2002/03 to 2003/04 and then again by 4000 in the final year leading up to the World Cup.

By the time the season following the World Cup ended, the average attendance was calculated to be 41000 compared to 33000 in the 2002/03 season.

Another reason for the increase in popularity of the Bundesliga has been the remarkable influx of youngsters into many Bundesliga sides. This influx of youth is one which is completely unique within Europe’s biggest leagues and one which very much separates the Bundesliga from the rest of the well watched leagues.

The increase in youngsters within the squad has been quite gradual from the mid 2000′s, when the Bundesliga was arguably at its trough in terms of overall quality and popularity with viewers outside of Germany. The play was largely dull and made true the popular stigma that German football was robotic and devoid of much exciting attacking play.

History from the 2003/04 season to the current 2011/12 season of average age of Bundesliga sides with a trend line

While the data points from the graph seem to be in pretty close proximity numerically, the linear trend line shows a clear decreasing nature of the average age of Bundesliga sides for the past nine years. From an age of just over 26 in the 2003/04 season to an age of just over 25 in the current season, we can see that, on average, Bundesliga sides are putting more trust in younger players.

It’s a trend that is unique to the Bundesliga in comparison to the other three major leagues in Europe (Spanish La Liga, Italian Seria A, English Premier League).

As seen from the graphs, the average ages of teams from the other three major leagues show amazing consistency throughout the same period as that analyzed for the Bundesliga, thereby proving that the trend within the Bundesliga has been a unique one.