Shortly before FC Bayern’s annual general meeting, Munich club member Michael Ott once again criticized the controversial sponsorship of the record German soccer champions with the Emirate’s airline.
“FC Bayern says they are in dialogue with Qatar to improve things. You can perhaps do that as part of a training camp if you talk to all sides on site. But the advertising badge on the sleeve isn’t a dialogue, it’s the one-sided dissemination of a marketing message that serves to give Qatar a positive image,” Ott told the news portal “t-online” in an interview.
At the turbulent annual general meeting of FC Bayern in autumn 2021, Ott wanted to submit a spontaneous application to have the Munich sponsorship voted on with the airline Qatar Airways. However, the presidency did not allow this. Ott had then sharply criticized the behavior of the club management.
Ott: “Numerous questions essentially remain unanswered”
Ott wants to speak again at the annual general meeting with the presidential election this Saturday (6 p.m.). “I want to ask Mr. (Herbert) Hainer again, as the candidate with no alternative, before the election of the presidium, how he personally positions himself, especially on the Qatar issue. Precisely because the election of the presidium – according to FC Bayern’s arguments – is the only way of the members in order to exert influence. That’s why you should take a close look at what the candidate stands for,” said Ott.
FC Bayern organized a round table on Qatar at the beginning of July, in which Ott also took part. It was only this week that the Munich-based company presented the answers to the list of questions asked by the members about the controversial sponsorship.
“Basically, I think it’s good that FC Bayern has answered all the questions. However, the devil is in the details and many of the answers are just hot air. Many questions remain completely unanswered,” said Ott. “In general, the impression resonates that the decision to continue the sponsorship has already been made. That’s frustrating when you see how all our factual arguments aren’t even taken into account.”
Hainer recently said about the cooperation with the airline: “We will sit down after the World Cup, first analyze for ourselves how the partnership was, then talk to our partner and then we will decide.”