After their strong Bundesliga start, BVB initially became more of a middle-of-the-road side after the European triumph. In the years following the win over Liverpool and the runner-up finish, Dortmund only seriously entered the title race once more, in 1967, when they finished third. The aging European heroes could no longer step up, and in 1969 star striker Lothar Emmerich had to be sold after yet another financial crisis.\n\nBy then the golden days in the Ruhr seemed to be fading anyway.
As Baroth put it, the final season of the Oberliga West had symbolic character: the closing of the mines had begun and pithead towers were collapsing under demolition charges. Borussia Dortmund, too, suffered from this structural change, as politicians liked to euphemistically call the downward spiral.\n\nAttendances fell from more than 26,000 in 1966/67 to 16,000 in 1971/72, partly because of the Bundesliga scandal, in which BVB were not even involved. In 1972 Dortmund were relegated from the Bundesliga for the first time and, short of cash, just about managed to scrape through in the Regionalliga and then the 2. Bundesliga.
Particularly painful for hardened Borussia supporters: in 1974 Schalke came to town for a benefit match.
