“I was told that Uli is dissatisfied,” says Matthäus
“It was a crash to the absolute low point of this season”
FC Bayern loses clearly in the Bundesliga in Mainz and no longer has the championship in their own hands. WELT sports reporter Julien Wolff says who he sees as responsible for the deep crisis of the soccer record champions.
FC Bayern is deep in crisis, the leadership of the German record champions around Oliver Kahn and Hasan Salihamidzic looks battered. A crucial meeting is coming up. Club legend Lothar Matthäus has a premonition.
Er himself played for FC Bayern for a long time. From 1984 to 1988 – and then, when he returned from Italy from Inter Milan, again from 1992 to 2000. Record-breaking national soccer player Lothar Matthäus still maintains a close relationship with the Munich team, even if the relationship with the former Bayern executives changed Uli Hoeneß wasn’t always the best.
As far as the current crisis in the German record champions is concerned, the 62-year-old does not currently consider further personnel consequences at Bayern to be sensible. “I don’t think that a manager should be fired in the middle of the season after a change of coach,” wrote the former Bayern professional in his Sky column. “I don’t think Karl-Heinz Rummenigge will come back either. And it can’t be the solution that Uli Hoeneß is now leading the club from the front line again.”
Lothar Matthäus, Hasan Salihamidzic and Uli Hoeneß (from left)
Source: pa/Arne Dedert/dpa
The Bayern management team with Oliver Kahn (53), Hasan Salihamidzic (46) and Herbert Hainer (68) is one month before the regular and long-planned meeting of the Supervisory Board, in which the opinion of Honorary President Hoeneß is still the most important is under pressure because of the sporting crisis at the record champions. Bayern have been eliminated from both cup competitions and are second in the Bundesliga table with five games to go.
“After bad games all hell broke loose”
On May 22nd, when the control committee around Hainer, chairman of the supervisory board, will the end of the term of office of CEO Kahn, which runs until the end of 2024, be decided? Or is the focus on sports director Salihamidzic, whose contract runs until June 2026? Do they both continue to trust each other? Or will there be a big bang and the operational management will be completely reorganized?
“I personally never said that Kahn or Salihamidzic didn’t deserve another chance and that you couldn’t start the new season with them. After the ruthless analysis of the season, that could well be the case,” said Matthäus. “But several people have told me that Uli has been dissatisfied with the cast that he has installed in the executive floor for many months. (…) But if things are not going well in the family, then you can also take the advice and wisdom of the head to heart.”
The Bayern team got off far too well in public for far too long. “And by all those responsible. I don’t want to celebrate the old days all the time. But Hoeneß used to get into the dressing room often and rightly, and after bad games all hell broke loose,” wrote the former Bayern captain.
