since the launch of the bundesliga on 24 august 1963 fifty-five clubs have played in the league ranks. to help celebrate the 40th anniversary of the league, two clubs with distinguished bundesliga histories met in a game on 24 august 2003: hamburger sv, once known as the "dinosaur" for being the only club which has played in every season of the league's existence until relegation in 2018, and bayern munich, the most successful side in german football, which had just won their seventeenth bundesliga title.