Bayern’s real boss: ‘Replacing Nagelsmann wasn’t necessary a smart thing’

There are clubs that have a president, and he is the boss. And there are clubs that have a president, but other ‘influential members’ of the board are actually calling the shots. The pure example of the first one is Real Madrid, where everything starts and ends with Florentino Perez, while Uli Hoeness is a clear example of the other club, Bayern Madrid. The German giant does have a president, is currently Herbert Hainer, but he is also the chairman of the Supervisory Board, a body which controls everything, and of which Uli Hoeness, the former player, president and honorary president, is the most influential member.

Anybody who knows anything about Bayern knows that Hoeness is the main man, and even he sometimes ‘jumps out’ and says something to confirm that status. But he is smart enough to stop just short of saying that. When asked in a “BR24 Wahl – Der Sonntags-Stammtisch” program about changing the complete executive board (CEO and sports director) and coach at Bayern, Hoeness basically agreed but wanted to be precise.

“I didn’t replace the coach. Which wasn’t necessarily smart”. This was an interesting statement since Hoeness gave full support to the current one, Thomas Tuchel, but it also means that the former Bayern president wasn’t involved in sacking Julian Nagelsmann, who was still very much in the race of all three trophies at the time, and he wants public to knows that.

”Nagelsmann dismissal was a solo effort by the then CEO Oliver Kahn and sports director Hasan Salihamidzic. Herbert Hainer, as chairman of the supervisory board, was also informed far too late. And something like that just doesn’t work. On the Wednesday before the final separation, Hasan stood at my door and said: We want to do this, and actually we have already decided,” Hoeness explained earlier in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.

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Also, the former president revealed clearly who he considered to be the ‘weakest link’.

“The appointment of Oliver Kahn as CEO was a big mistake. And when I realized that he couldn’t do that, I decided with Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and changed that. We used to earn well as footballers, but we were aware that we would still have to work later to provide for the family. If a footballer plays football at Bayern for ten years, then he no longer has to work. Whether the player is prepared to work twelve hours a day, six days a week when that is no longer necessary – that is the big question. Oliver Kahn recently said in an interview: ‘A CEO doesn’t have to work 24 hours a day.’ Then I replied: ‘It should be twelve hours. I don’t want to experience that again” said Hoeness.

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Bayern have now hired a sports director, Christoph Freund. There are also rumours about Max Eberl as a possible sports director.

“I estimate that in the next six to twelve months we will have the personnel that the future should have. Then Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and I will retire to the supervisory board position, which is only intended to advise. At the moment, however, we also have more operational tasks until we notice that the ship is sailing straight again” explains Hoeness, without mentioning the name Eberl.