Oliver Kahn’s tenure as chairman of the board at FC Bayern lasted less than two years. The former world goalkeeper was the dream solution of honorary president Uli Hoeneß, having succeeded long-time club boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in the summer of 2021. Kahn’s failure this year caused Hoeneß to rethink fundamentally, as he now explains.
Until the dismissal of Oliver Kahn as CEO and Hasan Salihamidzic as sports director at Munich, Uli Hoeneß himself was a big advocate of hoisting former football professionals into the most powerful and important offices at FC Bayern.
“I always hoped that former Bayern players or players from the Bundesliga could succeed Rummenigge and me,” confirmed the long-time manager and president of the German record champions in an interview with “Sport Bild”.
The hope that ex-professionals could help the club with their personal wealth of experience as footballers was ultimately dashed.
“I thought that would be a sure-fire success – but it’s not. I can no longer maintain this statement,” admitted the 71-year-old.
FC Bayern: Uli Hoeneß praises Jan-Christian Dreesen
In the meantime, with club president Herbert Hainer and Kahn’s successor Jan-Christian Dreesen, there are two people at the top of FC Bayern who cannot look back on an active past in professional football.
For Hoeneß, this is no longer a problem: “It may well be that the future executives do not come from competitive sports. Like Jan-Christian Dreesen, a former banker as CEO. He does it outstandingly,” praised Hoeneß, who also is himself again responsible as a full member of the supervisory board and member of the long-established sports committee of FC Bayern.