Uli Hoeneß on 49 years at FC Bayern, criticism and gratitude

Uli Hoeneß interviewed

Uli Hoeneß, you are now retiring from FC Bayern – how do you feel about that?

I'm fine. I've made the decision and not regretted it for a single second. There'll now come a time that I'm not used to, having continually been occupied with events and projects. I'll take everything as it comes. It will definitely be interesting – and I'm probably the one most excited by it.

Did you wake up one day and think: that's it?

No, it was a gradual process. I always wanted to get everything absolutely right, I also tried to do my jobs at FC Bayern as perfectly as possible, and now I think the time has come. I've beaten candidates to succeed Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and myself for several years. If I wasn't completely convinced by Herbert Hainer and Oliver Kahn, I would have stood again. The president in the USA is 73, his challenger 78 and the biggest hope for the Democrats is 70 – so I thought: "And you idiot, you’re giving up at 67!" But I think two aspects are important: I don't want to be sent packing. And I don't want to say: Hopefully FC Bayern won't do that well after I've left so that my work appears in a better light. My maxim is that the club should do even better in the future. For me, it's always about FC Bayern and not individuals.

How would you counter critics who say Hainer and Kahn are your placemen, ensuring you retain influence?

That's what people say who see an enemy round every corner. That's not the way I work. I look for people who I can trust to do the job. And I also confidently declare: FC Bayern would look different without me. If my successors can do a similar job, everybody can be really happy.

What's on the cards for the next chapter of your life?

I'm curious. Herbert Hainer is due to move into my office. If anybody at FC Bayern asks me for advice, I'll be there. If they don't need it, that's a good sign. My life is totally balanced. I'm particularly looking forward to spending more time with my grandchildren. Amongst other things, I'm chairman of the advisory board at the Dominik Brunner foundation and on the board of [the club’s charitable foundation] FC Bayern Hilfe eV, I'll continue to give lectures and speeches, plus there’s playing golf and cards – so it won't be a case of sitting at home next to the telephone and waiting for someone to call me up. I'll never be the first to speak to a reporter. I'll still be on the supervisory board and there will still be regular contact with the management. I have a perfect relationship with all the people involved. I'm not so ambitious that I want to carry on putting my stamp on the club. My strength was always never thinking I knew everything better. Instead, that I had lots of people I could ask for advice, who corrected me and could talk to me. Now I'd like to be that type of adviser for other people. But one thing is clear: I will not stand in the way. And now I’m clearing out my office, because I know myself: if I don’t, nothing would have changed. There has to be a clear break. But I’m not gone for good.

Last year's AGM affected you. Does that mean you've retired perhaps because of disappointment or possibly anger?

No. This transition for the future of the club is too important for that. I can also say I'm completely satisfied. I'm happy when I look out of the window in the morning.

49 years at FC Bayern – why was it worth it?

I haven't regretted one day and I have everything to thank this club for. I've never seen myself as an employee, rather always as the number one fan. Gratitude is an important word for me. I only feel gratitude to FC Bayern.

Have you made mistakes?

My biggest mistake was my tax affairs. I deeply regret that and criticism of it is highly justified. I'm so grateful to my family; they provided incredible support. I had a lot of time to think about things and learn about life. As mad as it sounds, I don’t regret that period. In difficult times I remember the blows of fate I encountered back then. On one occasion, someone was sitting in my cell even though he'd been released. He said he didn't know what he should do. Nobody picked him up. Then he was in a taxi. To nowhere. Experiences like that make a mark on you.

What will you miss most?

At the moment, I’m pushing questions like that to the back of my mind. But I'm not really a nostalgic person. I’ll still keep up intensive contact with FC Bayern, invite players out for a meal and, when it's required, say what I think behind closed doors. In future, I see myself as an elder statesman who offers advice but does’nt force it on anyone.

Did the charge of "FC Bayern is not your property!" hit you particularly hard?

Yes, because I think it simply wasn't true. The truth is I've always treated FC Bayern like a member of the family.

Where will FC Bayern be in ten years?

I think our ideas will prosper like never before in the next few years. There’s hardly any other club in the world that is managed on the financial side like we are. A lot of other clubs are on course to build up mountains of debt of over €1 billion. They won't be around within the foreseeable future. It will hit big clubs as well.

But that prediction has often been voiced by FCB…

And we were right in certain areas: Where are Inter Milan? Where are AC Milan? Where are Valencia? They used to be a big club. Or my great role model: Manchester United. Where are they now? Not in the Champions League, in tenth position in England! There's lots of evidence that you can't be successful in football over the long term with money alone, without expertise, without passion and without values.

Your policies were always sporting quality, economic solidity – and social values. Will those parameters shape the future of the club?

I can't promise it but I know the people in charge and I think they will take heed of that. It's a crucial unique selling point that makes our brand so popular. It's no coincidence we have around 295,000 members – no other club has anywhere near as many. If people say we manage FC Bayern as in the old days, there still appear to be enough people who don't find our style so bad and identify with it. There'd be something wrong if all problems could be solved with money alone, and equally, if shaking hands isn't worth anything any more.

The community is definitely a key aspect of your personal FCB philosophy.

But it's becoming increasingly difficult in this social media age. In my opinion, being online scarcely permits genuine emotion, it appears brutal and cold to me, and many people don't know that they’re being manipulated and controlled on the internet. You can't just depend on the virtual world. There is a lot that’s false. The fact that people are losing themselves in these media is, I believe, a fundamental evil of today's society.

What can be done to counter it?

I've always looked at it this way: If somebody doesn't like something, they should write me a letter and I'll call them back. If a journalist wrote something I didn't agree with, I'd call him up. The main thing is that people deal with each other face-to-face. If it gets controversial that's not a problem. A shitstorm on the internet, where most hide behind anonymity, should not be a yardstick. When I was in prison, I sometimes received such moving letters that I cried like a baby in my cell. Even now, people post letters to me, handwritten, heart-rending, life stories, pages long – things like that are authentic. I was told once that a reporter went to five different places on Tegernsee for a nasty story about me: the mayor, the baker, the sports shop, the vets, the chemists. Nobody had a bad word for me. The article never appeared.