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Annual General Meeting of FC Bayern: Hainer apologizes for last year, Kahn wants to find a "solution" for Qatar sponsorship after the World Cup

2022-10-15T20:17:43.015Z


This year, FC Bayern's general meeting was smoother than in 2021. President Herbert Hainer admitted to making mistakes. Oliver Kahn wants to tackle the Qatar connection criticized by the fans – but only after the World Cup.


Enlarge image

CEO Oliver Kahn and President Herbert Hainer

Photo:

IMAGO / IMAGO/ActionPictures

FC Bayern Munich gave a more peaceful picture than last year at the annual general meeting.

More than 1000 members were present in the basketball hall of the Munich club this year.

The financial situation, cooperation with Qatar and the conflict at last year's event were discussed.

President Herbert Hainer was re-elected.

Despite renewed financial losses, the German record champions reported sales of 665.7 million euros in the 2021/2022 financial year.

According to the financial report, the net profit was 12.7 million euros.

“That's a strong result.

There is hardly any other top European club that, like FC Bayern, has been able to report constant profits over the past three years despite the pandemic," said CFO Jan-Christian Dreesen.

The club is "completely debt-free," explained Herbert Hainer, who allowed himself a dig at the biggest Bundesliga rival: "Borussia Dortmund has been in the red for the third time in a row."

At the beginning of the event, Hainer apologized to the members present for what happened at the 2021 AGM, which he had broken off over the Qatar sponsorship dispute.

"I've made mistakes too"

"We all know that this evening was not a glorious day for our club," said Hainer, who had been elected to succeed Uli Hoeneß three years ago.

"I, too," said Hainer, "made mistakes that evening as the chairman of the meeting, for which I would like to formally apologize again."

Last year, Hainer no longer allowed comments from members who wanted to get involved in a controversial FC Bayern sponsorship deal.

This had caused a riot.

At the beginning of this year's meeting, however, the 69-year-old did not specifically address the criticism of the connection with "Qatar Airways".

Initially, Hainer only addressed how FC Bayern handled and communicated with the subject.

The "most important lesson" from this evening was: "As a club, we want to be a partner and play double passes, we have to keep in touch."

Hainer ran for another term as President at the Annual General Meeting.

Nothing stands in the way of his re-election – there is no other candidate.

He won the election with 78.2 percent of all votes.

There were 218 votes against and 85 abstentions.

When he was elected three years ago, like his predecessors Franz Beckenbauer, Hoeneß and Karl Hopfner, he received more than 97 percent of the votes.

Qatar is to be discussed »after the World Cup«

CEO Oliver Kahn also commented on Qatar, but not specifically.

"We will continue to discuss the issue intensively with Qatar Airways after the World Cup, we will weigh everything up and then we will find a solution for FC Bayern," he said.

The contract with the sponsor ends next year.

From November 20th to December 18th this year the World Cup will take place in Qatar.

The organizer was heavily criticized in advance for human rights violations.

He sees the cooperation with the airline Qatar Airways very critically, said Kahn, but also justified it.

"There has been progress in Qatar on labor rights and human rights," argued the former international goalkeeper.

FC Bayern professionals and the club's Bundesliga players regularly complete their training camp in the Emirate of Qatar in winter.

The men's winter training camp in Doha is also planned for next January.

mrk/dpa/sid

Source: spiegel

All sports articles on 2022-10-15

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