Usually kicker is a pretty good source for football news, but this seems ridiculously silly. Estimating the “state” of a league by the standings after 8 games is so stupid. It’s an interesting statistical anomaly that manifests itself in a clearly visible gap in the table, but if there were only 2-3 different results this gap all of the sudden vanishes and so do most of those negative/positive records.

If the teams in either side of those buckets would be the same every year or backed by “strange investors” like in other leagues, it would be a concern. But that’s not the case. Heck, Stuttgart barely escaped relegation the last 2 seasons and is now enjoying a good spell (that might end due to Guirassy’s injury). Union was doing great the last few seasons and now finds itself near the bottom of the table. There’s movement - from season to season, and even within a season. It’s great. The title suggests a problem (as no one wants “two-class societies”) but it’s not the case. Embarrassing clickbait.