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Uli Hoeness, the Return of Mr. Bayern Munich Can Only Be Good for the Club
- Updated: November 28, 2016
Prison is supposed to rehabilitate you, to make you see the error of your ways. On Friday, Uli Hoeness promised the more than 7,000 members of Bayern Munich who had just re-elected him as the club’s president that he had done so.
“I would like to warmly thank all of you here, and I promise you I won’t disappoint you,” he said, per Der Spiegel (in German). “I ask you for a second chance, and I will do everything to fulfil your expectations.”
Just nine months after being released from prison after being incarcerated for tax evasion, Hoeness is back where over 98 per cent of Bayern members believe he belongs: at the head of the club.
Make no mistake, the position is much more than that of a figurehead. Unlike the English Premier League, where boardroom figures remain largely unseen behind the frosted glass of executive lounges and meeting rooms, in Germany—as in Spain, Italy and France—the club president is a position of power and real on-the-pitch influence.
Consequently, they attract a lot of media attention, particularly when—like Hoeness—they have been a successful player, too.
The re-election of Hoeness, in place of Karl Hopfner—who took on the role when Hoeness resigned following his tax evasion conviction in 2014—is a real boon for both Bayern and the press. I have been in the mixed zone at the Allianz Arena and wondered at the frenzy of the German media to get a quote from a figure hidden behind the forest of microphones and cameras. It was Hoeness.
And he is excellent value for money. “As long as Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and I have some say at FC Bayern, he won’t be on the ground staff at the new stadium,” Hoeness said of former Bayern captain Lothar Matthaus, per rp-online (in German).
His comparison of former coach Jurgen Klinsmann to a hugely expensive computer while Jupp Heynckes, the ex-USA boss’ successor, has “a flipchart and five marker pens” is another classic.
“With Heynckes we win games for €12.50,” Hoeness said of the man who brought the treble to Bayern in 2013, per rp-online (in German). “With Klinsmann, we spent a lot of money and had very little success.”
For all his faults, a lack of success is a criticism that cannot be levelled at Hoeness. A member of the great Bayern side of the 1970s that won three successive European Cups, Hoeness’ playing career was cut short by injury. It is the path he then followed after …
