By 2004, after the spendthrift policies of Dr. Gerd Niebaum, BVB were on the verge of insolvency. During the German national team's camp in Portugal for the European Championship, people even discussed whether the former champions might lose their license.\n\nHelp came, of all places, from Munich.
When Dortmund no longer knew what to do and could not pay salaries, Bayern advanced two million euros for a few months without security, as Uli Hoeness later put it. In addition, Bayern bought Torsten Frings, at that moment Dortmund's only remaining top star, for 9.5 million euros.\n\nYears later Watzke confirmed that Hoeness's version was true.