How the adventure began

On July 1, 2015, after growing increasingly tired of his Bayern-obsessed wife Ellen trying to “talk Bayern” with him, Guenther Jahrmann, a Borusse ironically from Bavaria, created a Meet Up page for Bayern fans and gave Ellen the password, encouraging her to “find your people”. A bit reluctant, Ellen let the page sit for awhile over the summer while she missed Bundesliga. Having toyed with the idea of creating an official Bayern Munich fan club in years past, Ellen thought that the Meet Up group might be a good way to recruit fans. So one August afternoon, she put up an invitation for the first game: August 14, Bayern vs Hamburg, and one person RSVPed, Ciaran Browne. They met, along with Guenther, at Stars 'N' Bars on Yas Island, to watch the first game of the 2015/16 season and witnessed Medhi Benatia scoring the season’s first goal. Ellen admitted to Ciaran that her ulterior motive in creating a Meet Up group was to meet enough people to start an official Bayern Munich fan club. Ciaran liked the idea and a club was born!

Over the months, more people joined and there were 10 fans enjoying Der Klassiker, the Bayern vs Dortmund game, on October 4 at Brauhaus at Beach Rotana. More people continued to join the Meet Up group, including family members, and the fan club membership grew, too. The group tried various venues for Bundesliga, DFB Pokal, and Champions League games and a core group of fans joined for most of them at The Sportsman’s Arms, watching proudly as Bayern sat atop the table all season.

Finally, in mid-January, the group had the 25 required names for official membership and submitted their request. On January 26, 2016, Raimond Aumann, fan club coordinator for FC Bayern Munich, sent Ellen the official documentation of the FC Bayern Munich Abu Dhabi Fan Club. Two founding members, Jane Browne and Sebastian Kuckart, agreed to join Ellen as officers and the three met frequently to begin planning the fan club’s direction, events, and image. The logo was complete by the end of the playing season and approved on the same day by Bayern Munich’s fan club department. While the officers spent the Euro 2016 on different sides – Ireland, Belgium, and Germany – they continued to work together for the good of the  Bayern fan club, scheduling games, choosing venues, designing merchandise, creating web sites, setting up social media presence, connecting with other fan clubs around the world, and planning recruitment strategies.

Mia San Writing History....