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FC Bayern and the racism case: “Nobody dares to say anything”

On Thursday, the day before the big game, FC Bayern moved. From the training camp in the Algarve we went to the mountains of Sintra. They moved into a remote resort 25 kilometers west of the Portuguese capital and went to the stadium in the neighboring town of Mafra for training. Everything went according to plan, with the final preparations for Friday, for the quarter-final duel in the Champions League with FC Barcelona (9 p.m., live ticker SPIEGEL.de; TV: Sky).

The news from home in Munich, however, is shocking. The racism allegations against a youth coach from the junior campus occupy those responsible in Portugal. One speaks of an “unsavory story” in the club, of a “disgusting incident”.

At the beginning of the week, the WDR magazine “Sport inside” reported for the first time about the suspicion against the youth coach. Accordingly, the supervisor, who has been working in the youth department since 2003 and was promoted to sports director of the U9 to U15 teams in 2016, made derogatory comments about players, be it because of their skin color or their surname. Most filthy terms have been handed down. Terms that were also posted under his name in a Twitter account. An account that should not have been created by him, but which has reproduced utterances that he uttered word for word in a WhatsApp group. SPIEGEL was able to view screenshots of these chat histories. It is still unclear whether these are real.

Trainer is said to be notorious for his appearance

Further research by SPIEGEL has now shown that the statements fit into the picture conveyed by the supervisor on campus with his demeanor, his tone and his methods. He is said to have discriminated against players because of their skin color, nationality or alleged homosexuality and also because of their religious affiliation.

But when did the club management know about it?

According to confirmed information from SPIEGEL, anonymous letters were received in the boardroom of Bavaria from autumn 2018. With club boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, with the then president Uli Hoeneß, sports director Hasan Salihamidzic, also with the campus leaders, the triumvirate from Hermann Gerland, Jochen Sauer and Holger Seitz: letters in which parents the multitude of racist and homophobic statements and harassment the coach complained.

Immediately a survey was carried out with all those involved, with the parents and the children. The result, however: not a single critical voice, consistently positive feedback. Even more: Even with the regular assessments by the youth players, the supervisor always received a respectable certificate with the rating: “Above average good” – which is why the club headquarters may have given the impression that the abuse in the anonymous letters was possibly bad Gossip, an act of revenge, a private feud out of mortification, perhaps because the coach regularly puts his own child on the bench.

Strong position of power on campus

But why this discrepancy between the anonymously sent letters and the positive reviews?

Why did parents and children keep silent when asked about it personally? “That is understandable,” said an employee from the campus now to SPIEGEL, “when your son has made it to Bayern and finally wears the jersey proudly on his shoulders, then you don’t risk publicly taking a stand against a coach, for fear that your child will be thrown out because of it. Nobody dared say anything. ” Also not because the supervisor is said to have had a position of power on campus solely through his function.

FC Bayern, which does not want to make any further official statements with reference to the ongoing investigation, began according to SPIEGEL information immediately after the new revelations at the beginning of the week with another internal investigation. If the allegations were to be confirmed, it was heard that the supervisor’s immediate expulsion was the only conceivable consequence.

But even with an immediate discharge, the matter would not be off the table. The state security has launched an investigation against the employee of FC Bayern. In return, according to “Sportschau”, the accused himself made a counter-report against the previously unknown operator of the fake account.

At Bayern the question arises: How could one have pursued the allegations of the anonymous letters with more emphasis back then? Who knew what in the youth academy? And how could a climate of intimidation be countered in the future so that parents and children fearlessly have the courage to publicly admit to the allegations in similar incidents and not just anonymously behind closed doors?

These are questions that will keep FC Bayern busy.

Icon: The mirror

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