Schalke and the Bundesliga scandal – dirty game. In 1971 Schalke 04 became embroiled in the Bundesliga corruption scandal. The team deliberately lost 0–1 to Arminia Bielefeld on 3 April 1971 in exchange for bribes.
Numerous Schalke professionals, including internationals Klaus Fichtel, Klaus Fischer, Reinhard Libuda and Rolf Rüssmann, landed in court and received serious suspensions. Others involved included Hans-Jürgen Wittkamp, Herbert Lütkebohmert, Manfred Pohlschmidt, Hans Pirkner, Jürgen Sobieray, Dieter Burdenski, Klaus Senger, Jürgen Galbierz and Heinz van Haaren. As Klaus Fischer later explained, they had thrown the game largely as “a favour to Waldemar Slomiany”, who had moved from Schalke to Bielefeld.
What a lovely act of friendship. Whether the club leadership knew remains unproven, though heavily suspected. The court marathon lasted years, and Fischer would later admit: “My God, how stupid we were.
To lose a match for 2,300 marks each – you can’t be more idiotic than that. A win bonus back then was 2,000 marks.”