Trouble of FC Bayern with its fans: At a distance

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Bavaria President Herbert Hainer

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Frank Hoermann / Sven Simon / ddp

What does it take to lead FC Bayern?

Entrepreneurial spirit, negotiating skills, footballing expertise, management skills, a good network in the industry - if it were that alone, the new management team on Säbener Straße would probably be the ideal choice.

With Herbert Hainer you have the former head of a global corporation as president, with Hasan Salihamidžić and Oliver Kahn two former professionals with years of Bavarian biography on the board, there couldn't be a better choice of staff.

But in order to run FC Bayern, you need something else, a certain emotional intelligence, the ability to let fans and the public feel that this club means something to one of the clubs, including a certain tendency to want to be a tribune.

Little feeling for the nuances

The general meeting of the association on Thursday, which got out of control in the end, showed that this is exactly what the new leadership is missing.

The lack of tact when dealing with the Qatar issue has a lot to do with the fact that Hainer, Kahn and Co. lack a feeling for it.

A feeling for the things that move, so to speak, between heaven and earth of a football club.

Soul is a big word, but so this new leadership: soulless.

At most she suspects the nuances, but she doesn't hear them yet.

But that evening they tried so hard to talk about "heart and soul" (Hainer), of "coming home" (Kahn), all these homely terms with which one can ensnare the feeling of the followers.

But in the end, Hainer is and will remain a top manager, a man of business, the coolness that he exudes does not give way when he talks about his passion.

Kahn, the former angry man on the field, has reinvented himself to such an extent after his professional career as a reflective-looking distance person that you can no longer believe that goalkeeper Kahn and manager Kahn are the same people.

Hoeneß and Rummenigge: A lot of show, but it was a good show

Oliver Kahn of earlier days would probably have blown his neck in the emotionally charged debate about Qatar.

He would have been beside himself if the audience had laughed at him, booed him.

He might have hit the table, let his emotions run wild.

And it would have been an appearance that would have been talked about for a long time.

It would have been a Uli Hoeneß appearance.

There are more rewarding tasks than following in the footsteps of Hoeneß and Rummenigge.

For decades, the two have understood how to manage the club on the one hand, as is commonly expected from a management team.

But at the same time polarizing, exciting, calculated provoking.

Often there was a shake of the head as a reaction, but one always had the feeling that the two of them suffer with and at their club.

Bayern's failure was still a personal offense for her.

It was Rummenigge and Hoeneß who established the business relationship with Qatar, who sent the team to their winter quarters over the years.

One should never forget that.

But they understood how to channel the displeasure about being clever as they are, because they kept giving the fans on the other side sugar.

Secondary theaters of war were opened, dealings with league rivals were instigated, the media puffed at.

Lots of show, but it was a good show.

It is not easy to find your own way in their successor, to take up traditions and at the same time to set yourself apart, but so far one can say: Hainer, Kahn and Salihamidžić have not yet succeeded in doing this.

To underestimate the explosiveness of Qatar, which has been predictable for weeks, on such an evening, and even worse, even to fuel it with legal tricks in advance, that happens when you either do not know the emotional state of the followers or ignore them.

»Thanks also to our sponsors«

Then you have to live with the kind of reactions you got on Thursday.

When Hainer closed the list of speakers early shortly after midnight and ended the discussion with boos and whistles from many members with the hint, "I also thank our sponsors very much," that was significant.

Typical of an alienation that FC Bayern is by no means exclusive.

An alienation that the national team and its director Oliver Bierhoff have felt for years.

Which all the people involved should have long been aware of.

And still fuel them again and again.

If you don't feel it, you won't chase it, it says in Goethe's Faust.

They just may not feel it.

The old FC Bayern was always folklore in all tough business, and nowhere was more folklore than at the general meetings.

A colleague of the »Süddeutsche Zeitung« wrote on Twitter that anyone who wants to understand FC Bayern must go to the general assembly.

It seems as if they are just beginning to understand Bayern’s current leadership.