Anyone who wanted to know whether FC Bayern will be arguing with its members again in 2022, whether people will be getting up on chairs with anger and whether Uli Hoeneß will be at a loss for words at the end, could get an insightful insight at the annual general meeting in the club’s basketball hall check it out around half past eight in the evening.
Rudi Grabmeier, President of the Red Bulls Taubenbach fan club, stood at the lectern for item 6 on the agenda, election of the Executive Committee. He sang “Happy Birthday” as a belated serenade for Hoeneß’s 70th birthday, and most of the 1,501 people in the hall sang along. Mind you: Uli Hoeneß’ birthday was more than nine months ago.
When Grabmeier then expressed his concern to “let the issue of Qatar rest”, i.e. not to speak about it anymore, the reactions in the hall were divided. It was booed. But there was also applause.
Bayern President Hainer is confronted with statements by the Qatari ambassador
FC Bayern’s AGM this year was one that drew particular scrutiny after the last ended in a dispute with members over Qatar Airways sponsorship. A request by member Michael Ott not to extend this sponsorship after the end of the contract in 2023 was not approved at the time, and the meeting ended although members still wanted to speak. Then there was booing and tumult, Hoeneß went to the microphone but said nothing – and called the event the worst he had ever experienced at Bayern Munich when he left.
Well, just a month before the World Cup in Qatar, considered the most controversial in football history, the mood was very different. The most controversial moment on the subject was when Ott Hainer asked before he was elected what he had to say about “Qatar peddling the uncritical behavior of the club”. He was referring to statements by the Qatari ambassador, who defended against criticism of the emirate: “Why did Bayern Munich come to Doha for the winter training camp for the last four, five years? Why didn’t they comment? Why didn’t they say that they were in Doha and that it was horrible?”
“We are definitely not silent,” said Hainer. “We have sought dialogue with you and also with the outside world.” Regarding the possible extension of the contract, he said: “Of course, one thing is also clear: joint projects must be defined in order to achieve further improvements in Qatar.” Many members were apparently satisfied, and there was applause. And about an hour later, Hainer was re-elected for the next three years with 83.8 percent of the votes. It was 98 percent when he was first elected in 2019.
Oliver Kahn has some members on his side
It was already clear before the first speeches that a scandal like last year would not be repeated. When Hainer and CEO Oliver Kahn came to the “Southern Star” in the hall, most of the members applauded. Unlike 2021, when only 780 members came in the middle of the pandemic, there were more supporters from all over Bavaria in the hall. There was even a dedicated fan club to support Kahn: “Titan Power 2008” was written on a flag
Hainer began his speech by apologizing “again in all forms” for the 2021 meeting. He told how he visited fan clubs and how the club sought dialogue, especially on the controversial issue of Qatar. You want to play “double pass” with the members.
Kahn, who did not mention the word “Qatar” in his speech in 2021, also addressed it this time. At the annual general meeting, he said that for a long time he had been very concerned with how people spoke to each other at the time – even if he knew that arguing was part of FC Bayern. There was even applause when he presented the club’s well-known defense strategy on the sponsorship deal with Qatar Airways: “If you want to make a difference, you have to talk to people.”
Then Kahn said: “Back to the most important thing, back to the sport.” And even with this assessment, he apparently had some members on his side.
FC Bayern with annual profit of 12.7 million euros
The evening had some of the FC Bayern meetings in previous years, before the pandemic. The applause was particularly loud when Hainer demanded a Bundesliga win against Freiburg on Sunday. He also tipped off rivals Borussia Dortmund, who were “in the red for the third year in a row”. FC Bayern, on the other hand, posted a net profit of 12.7 million euros in the 2021/2022 financial year, presented for the last time in ten years by Jan-Christian Dreesen.
Dreesen, 55, who recently announced his retirement from FC Bayern at the end of the season, was greeted with ovations after his presentation. The fan Fabian Stammberger, who spoke for the south curve, later even invited Dreesen to stand in the block after his career as an official. And when the fan Thomas Jaud suggested that the Munich fan curve should no longer be called the south stand on the tickets, but rather the south curve, because the south stand is in Dortmund, Dreesen said: “That’s a good idea. We’ll do it!”
So a year after FC Bayern seemed to be at odds with some of its members because the management didn’t want to talk to them, the CFO was applauded by the members.
The election result suggested that almost a fifth of the people in the hall had not forgiven Hainer for the past annual general meeting, and business relations with Qatar are still controversial, as further speeches apart from Ott’s showed. But the clearer message of the evening was that FC Bayern seems to have managed to reconcile with its members for the time being.
Hoeneß showed how deep the bitterness in the German record champions was when he left the hall. Words didn’t fail him this time. Addressing Ott, he exclaimed that his presentation had been embarrassing. After all, this is FC Bayern – “and not the General Assembly of Amnesty International!”