Thursday, June 03, 2021
Concerned about “turbo capitalism”
In parting, Rummenigge criticized Alaba
The outgoing Bayern CEO Rummenigge is worried about developments in world football. In farewell, he sees the record champions in good hands, calls for a cultural change and is clearly committed to the Bundesliga.
Life, says Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, is lived forwards and understood backwards. The outgoing CEO of Bavaria likes to quote a lot. So also in the big farewell interview with the “kicker”. So here the Danish philosopher Sören Kierkegaard. After 40 years in the service of FC Bayern and in the service of football, the 65-year-old finally has time to look back briefly: to the exciting decades and of course to the last troubled months on Säbener Straße, the already special pandemic season were shaped by the power struggle between sports director Hasan Salihamidžić and coach Hansi Flick, which also led to the loss of key player David Alaba.
He will play for Real Madrid in the future. A transfer that continues to affect Bavaria. There had already been upheavals between the record champions and Alaba agent Pini Zahavi last fall. The Israeli is considered a tough negotiating partner in the industry and proved this in talks with Bavaria, until Honorary President Uli Hoeneß burst his collar in the Sport1 one-two and insulted Zahavi as a “greedy piranha”. That said everything. And it was all about where Alaba would move to for free.
“Not satisfied with 19.5 million”
With a view to the turbulence and shifts in perspectives triggered by the pandemic, Rummenigge is now also criticizing Alaba’s salary claims, without naming a name: “Sure, there were times when the whole world only focused on faster-higher-further. Turbo capitalism in football is also causing me great worries at times, because it ignores the fans too much, “said Rummenigge to the” kicker “. “I think very few people in this existential crisis understand when a professional footballer already earns 15 million a year and is then not satisfied with 19.5 million.”
With personnel expenses of 339.775 million euros, FC Bayern Munich was around 120 million euros ahead of long-term rival Borussia Dortmund in the 2019/20 financial year. Both clubs had convinced their players of reduced salaries amid the pandemic. The figures for the fiscal year ending June 30 are not yet available. There is a gap of almost 200 million in relation to the club with the third-highest personnel budget, Rasenballsport Leipzig, according to the financial figures of the Bundesliga clubs published by the DFL. With Bayer Leverkusen, VfL Wolfsburg and Borussia Mönchengladbach, three other Bundesliga clubs are in the three-digit million range. The traditional club FC Schalke 04, which crashed into the second division, also posted personnel expenses of over 110 million euros in the 2020 calendar year.
The Bundesliga remains important
Rummenigge’s calls for a rethink in the industry are not new. Internationally, the rising wage demands of the few top players not only lead to financial problems at the Spanish giants Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, but also to the recurring efforts to found a European Super League. The last attempt failed only a few weeks ago. The two La Liga representatives and the Italian first division team Juventus refuse to admit failure to this day. The rebels now face massive penalties. UEFA has initiated disciplinary proceedings. At the same time, however, UEFA decided to reform the Champions League, which will make it more difficult for clubs from smaller leagues to access the elite competition in the future.
Accession was never an option for Rummenigge, he said. The Bundesliga, he says, still stands “for emotions, closeness and topics of conversation” and must therefore be protected. “This form of the Super League is off the table. And a purely economically oriented league of renegades does not help anyone,” says Rummenigge. “We have to protect the football eco-system. We need a cultural change towards more rationality and away from a completely overheated market.”
Rummenigge is now taking a breath for this cultural change. Oliver Kahn takes over at Bayern. “In the meantime I can feel that Oliver Kahn is ready,” says the outgoing CEO. “For me personally it is a good feeling that I can hand the club over to good hands.” Released from office, the family now goes to Sylt. For the first time with a little more time. There he can continue to study Kierkegaard. There he could find another quote: “Everything will come back, but in a different way.”
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