At FC Bayern, a power struggle is said to be simmering in the executive suite again. It’s supposedly about the future of CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen. Football expert Lothar Matthäus outlines internal processes. Bayern’s sports director Eberl, however, reports that the case surprised him.
According to a report in “Manager Magazin”, CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen has to worry about an extension of his contract at FC Bayern, which expires next year. Accordingly, the 57-year-old successor to Oliver Kahn is even threatened with being replaced if he does not voluntarily forego a new contract with the German record champions. According to the report, a decision about Dreesen’s future could be made at a supervisory board meeting on November 11th.
The report became public on the day of the Munich match against VfB Stuttgart. The team obviously didn’t care too much, they beat the runners-up 4-0 (0-0). But the high-ranking personnel naturally became a topic of conversation before and after the game. According to the report in “manager magazin”, the club boss is accused, among other things, of insulting an employee and throwing a magazine at her three years ago. The incident was investigated internally and the woman no longer works for the club.
Football expert Lothar Matthäus commented on this on “Sky”. That was, said the record national player and Bayern intimate expert, “a story that was perhaps also placed. The fact that Dreesen threw the newspaper at the employee happened three years ago. This is known. It’s a shame that stories like this are coming up at a time when things are back on track at FC Bayern.”
It is “nothing new,” said Matthäus, “that the CEO will be elected next year. Two or three months ago there was a discussion about this at Bayern. Bayern Munich’s chief financial officer Michael Diederich has been in discussion. Anyone who takes over from Karl-Heinz Rummenigge will have an incredible burden to bear. The big shoes left by Karl-Heinz Rummenigge are difficult to fill. Difficult for everyone. That’s why it’s difficult for Dreesen, and it was difficult for Oliver Kahn. You would need a mirror image of Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. One who represents, who has something to show for it. It doesn’t exist yet. But maybe in the future a Thomas Müller.”
“We at FC Bayern want to be a wagon castle”
As “Manager Magazin” also claims to have learned, several members of the control committee are said to be dissatisfied with the chairman of the board. The background is, among other things, the collapsed media deal for the Bundesliga, in whose failure Dreesen was involved as a member of the executive board of the German Football League (DFL). The DFL has to repeat the auction for media rights after an arbitration court partially ruled in favor of the streaming provider DAZN in the legal dispute with the association.
In a letter allegedly signed by Bayern’s finance chief Diederich, the Munich-based team is said to have demanded explanations from the DFL for the collapse of the deal. In addition, according to “Manager Magazin”, Dreesen was asked by the club to hand over his DFL position to Diederich. The Bayern boss rejected this.
After the game, Bayern’s sports director Max Eberl was asked about the Dreesen case. Eberl was asked whether there had been “various internal incidents” and whether that had “caught him off guard”. “I didn’t expect that,” he replied, “I don’t know what happened. They are way back. We, Michael Diederich and Jan Dreesen, work very intensively on the board every day to be successful for Bayern Munich. That’s what I can say about this thesis, hypothesis, whatever is out there. I’m not really interested in anything else. I want us to be successful. And Jan and Michael wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Eberl reported that it had been discussed, “the gentlemen have spoken about it. That puts the matter over for me too. We at FC Bayern want to be a fortress, we will survive such things. We’ll get through this together. If there had been something, we would still stand together,” said Eberl.
Will Rummenigge return as a temporary solution?
Dreesen took over at the helm of FC Bayern last May. The former bank manager had actually wanted to leave the club after several years as CFO, but somewhat unexpectedly became CEO after the turbulence surrounding the separation from Kahn. In terms of sport, Dreesen has so far been able to gather few arguments; last season remained without a title.
According to “Manager Magazin”, the question of a possible successor remains open. Former DFL managing director Christian Seifert and Red Bull boss Oliver Mintzlaff were named as candidates, but they are unlikely to be available. A transitional solution with the former CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge is also being discussed.
Dreesen was in the stadium for the duel against Stuttgart on Saturday evening. Unlike usual, he did not come to the interview zone in the Munich Arena after the game.
dpa/pk
