Uli Hoeneß on Bundesliga play-offs, World Cup plans and Max Eberl
Bayern Munich Honorary President Uli Hoeneß has vehemently opposed 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 Monday evening on the TV station Servus TV about the current debate about a changed game mode: “I find that ridiculous. In the Bundesliga, after 34 match days, the champion should be the one who has gone through thick and thin with his team.”
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, I still have playoffs with semifinals and finals, I think a joke idea.”
“When do you want to play?”
That Bayern boss Oliver Kahn open to a debate about the playoffs, Hoeneß commented succinctly: “That’s his opinion, it’s not mine.” allowed to play with ten people.”
Hoeneß also holds the FIFA President’s plan Gianni Infantinoto hold the World Cup every two years for “nonsense. The World Cup is the highest for all players in the world. And if I play that every two years, I’ll water down this competition.” There are 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, 1974 World Champion, 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 American championship, then the European championship. Mr. Infantino must also slowly realize that there are only 365 days in a year,” said Hoeneß.
Hoeneß holds a comeback from the long-time sporting director of Gladbach Max Eberl quite possible in professional football. “I am very close friends with Max Eberl. I’m sure he’s on vacation now. He will come back eventually and will continue to do a good job,” he said. 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 take “a lot of energy”, remarked Hoeneß, who has held various positions for 40 years FC Bayern coined: “But to say now, because it came together in such a way that it’s inhuman, that you 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 taking players and selling them for a fee. Now they’ve found that three important contracts are about to expire and they’re 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 below. All of that came together with Max.”
