Salzburg (dpa) – Bayern Munich’s honorary president Uli Hoeneß has spoken out vehemently against playoff games for the German championship in the Bundesliga.
“That’s just a law against Bayern Munich,” said the 70-year-old on the program “Sport and Talk from Hangar-7” on the TV station Servus TV about the current debate about a changed game mode: “I think so Ridiculous. In the Bundesliga, after 34 matchdays, the champion who has gone through thick and thin with his team should become champion.”
The fight for the title in the Bundesliga has been suffering for years from the dominance of Bayern, who are currently aiming for their tenth championship in a row. “It has nothing to do with tension,” Hoeneß said of the playoffs. Regarding the new head of the league, Donata Hopfen, Hoeneß remarked: “The new managing director of the DFL is now thinking day and night about how we can break the dominance of FC Bayern. And now they come up with this idea.”
There are no playoffs in any major football league in the world, Hoeneß argued: “Not in England, not in France, not in Spain, not in Italy. The knockout system is in the DFB Cup, the knockout system is in the Champions League. And the championship has to be won by whoever is the best team throughout the year.” Hoeneß also referred to the already full schedule: “At the end of the season, when everyone is broken, still having playoffs with semifinals and finals, I think it’s a joke.”
Hoeneß briefly commented that Bayern boss Oliver Kahn was open to a debate about the playoffs: “That’s his opinion, it’s not mine.” Finally, he sarcastically remarked on the subject on the show: “If they get stuck with that, they decide that we can only play with ten people.”
Hoeneß: World Cup every two years is “nonsense”
Hoeneß considers FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s plan to hold the World Football Championship every two years to be “nonsense”. “The World Cup is the highest for all players in the world. And if I play that every two years, I dilute this competition.”
There are also other major sporting events such as the Olympic Games or the European Football Championship, which currently alternates with the World Cup every two years. “When do you want to play that then?”
For Hoeneß, the World Cup is the most important competition in the world: “And it’s good if you compete every four years. That’s enough for me.” The international game calendar is full anyway. “We’ve seen it again now: There’s the Africa championship, then the South America championship, then the European championship. Mr. Infantino must also slowly realize that the year only has 365 days,” said Hoeneß.
Hoeneß: Football job is not “inhuman”
Hoeneß considers a comeback of the long-time Gladbach sports director Max Eberl in professional football to be quite possible. “I’m very close friends with Max Eberl. I’m convinced he’s on vacation now. He’ll come back at some point and will continue to be able to do a good job,” said Hoeneß.
The 48-year-old Eberl retired from his post at Bundesliga club Borussia Mönchengladbach at the end of January for health reasons. The reason was an exhaustion syndrome. “It’s a special situation, a lot of things came together,” said Hoeneß. Management jobs in football are “very nerve-wracking” and would also cost “a lot of energy”, remarked Hoeneß, who shaped FC Bayern in various positions for 40 years: “But to say now because it came together in such a way that it is inhuman that you I can’t stand it, I don’t see it that way.”
For Hoeneß, there was a special constellation at Eberl: “Different things came together. Gladbach has always made a living from bringing players and selling them for a fee. Now they have found that three important contracts are expiring and they are not getting anything. Suddenly there was pressure that didn’t exist before. They used to play for the Champions League, now they have to look downstairs. All of that came together with Max.”