Over several months, FC Bayern has worked together with its members in an unprecedented participatory process to develop a comprehensive motion to amend the statutes for the annual general meeting on 11/12 November. To sum up the interaction, Professor Dr. Dieter Mayer thanked the members at the second and final statute forum for their sustained commitment. "You can't have more objective discussions with each other," said the first vice-president of FC Bayern: "We want the broadest possible consensus with our members, which is why we had decided on this elaborate process on the way to a draft that is suitable for a majority." Through collaboration with the members and the inputs resulting from this exchange, a proposal can now be put to the vote at the annual general meeting in the Rudi Sedlmayer Hall that takes all sides into account, Mayer explained. And as soon as the members give the green light, "we will have a modern statute, as FC Bayern deserves".
The first forum with 50 participants at the FC Bayern Campus had required an impressive 90 minutes of extra time. The second encounter in the effectively smaller circle at Säbener Straße lasted a good 120 minutes, which was considerably shorter. This is proof of how FC Bayern and its members had come together piece by piece at the two statute forums of the German record champions. The entire process had been supported by the law firm Lentze Stopper, whose representative Dr. Felix Holzhäuser summarised again at the second statute forum by explaining that the statute changes had two essential headings: "After many years, FC Bayern wants to implement a necessary reform of the statutes in order to adapt them to the changed framework conditions - at the same time, the members' rights are to be strengthened." According to the sports lawyer, both have been achieved with the jointly drafted amendment. The aim was also not to overload the statutes. Fewer details, more principles, the expert outlined, as the statutes should last as long as possible.
After the first statutes forum had already discussed extensively in an "open-ended, constructive and also critical dialogue" (Benny Folkmann, managing director of FC Bayern eV) about complex topics such as the values of the club, the future organisation and implementation of the annual general meeting as well as the composition of the presidium and administrative advisory board, the second meeting dealt with final details. Above all, the way in which the annual general meeting is to be conducted was once again intensively discussed, with vice-president Mayer again clarifying several times that FC Bayern generally prefers a face-to-face event to a hybrid or digital implementation. A club lives from personal, active exchange. Therefore, it is important that many members come to the annual general meeting so that as representative a base as possible votes on the key decisions at FC Bayern. It is important to take into account the interests of all members. The challenge is that the legislator has enacted a new basis in the German Civil Law Code (BGB) on the subject of hybrid (presence and digital participation) meetings. If the members at the annual general meeting do not agree to the proposal drafted in the bylaws forum, the generally applicable version of the legislator will automatically take effect. "Our alternative is better," Mayer clarified.
In order to facilitate participation in the attendance event, FC Bayern is generally implementing a large number of corresponding suggestions from its members at the 2023 annual general meeting. Among other things, the meeting will take place at noon for the first time to make it easier to get to and from the meeting. In addition, entry and exit have been optimised and there are travel offers by bus and Deutsche Bahn developed exclusively for FCB members.
„We want the broadest possible consensus with our members, which is why we had decided on this elaborate process on the way to a draft that is capable of gaining majority support.”
Professor Dr. Dieter Mayer, First vice-president of FC Bayern
In the amendment to the statutes, among other things, the submission of motions will be optimised in the future in the sense of strengthening members' rights, and there are also new modalities for the candidacy for the presidium as well as the requirements for the appointment to the administrative advisory board. Also present at the statutes forum was Georg Fahrenschon, a member of the administrative advisory board since 2017, to provide insights into the work of this important advisory body. "People such as Dr. Edmund Stoiber and Munich's mayor Dieter Reiter sit there next to high-ranking representatives from the business world - and they ask the board critical questions, because none of them wants to be shipwrecked with FC Bayern," explained the former Bavarian Finance Minister.
At the end, Mayer once again reiterated how important dialogue with its members is to FC Bayern. "What we discuss does not go in one ear and out the other, I can promise that on behalf of the entire presidium. Our club has great members - and we need all of you! Tonight alone has shown once again how the common passion for FC Bayern unites us all." Melanie Humann, spokesperson for the Fan Dialogue Working Group and participant in the statutes forum, stated at the subsequent meeting of the Working Group: "We have found a good solution that the club will put to a vote at the annual general meeting." Her appeal is that as many members as possible come to the annual general meeting to approve the statutes, "because we have put many months of work into the changes to the statutes".
You can find the wording of the motion to amend the statutes, including all the proposed changes, HERE (in German).
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