Hoeness set to return as Bayern president
to resume his former position after announcing on
Monday that he will stand in November’s election,
despite having served a prison sentence.
Hoeness was freed from jail in February after
serving 21 months in prison for tax evasion, but is
set to be re-elected as the president of the German
champions with current incumbent, Karl Hopfner,
having already declared that he will not stand for
re-election.
“This has been agreed by Karl Hopfner and Uli
Hoeness by consensus in pleasant talks,” said the
club in a statement.
Hoeness is widely expected to be re-elected by
Bayern’s members.
The moral question of whether a convicted criminal
should resume as club president has not been
discussed publically, but from a legal point of view,
there is nothing preventing Hoeness’s return to
office.
The 64-year-old was released from Landsberg
prison, where Adolf Hitler wrote ‘Mein Kampf’,
after being convicted in March 2014 of evading at
least 28.5 million euros ($31.5 million) in taxes.
Having spent 40 years as either a player, manager
or president of the Bavarian giants, Hoeness has
shown humility and remorse since his release.
He has been a huge driving force in propelling
Bayern to the top of German and European football.
Hoeness succeeded Franz Beckenbauer as club
president in 2009 after a 30-year apprenticeship,
but behind the scenes Hoeness was obsessively
gambling millions on stocks and currencies via his
Swiss bank accounts, which eventually landed him
in jail.
“It’s not over yet,” was his battle cry at an
extraordinary general meeting in May 2014, shortly
before he resigned as Bayern president after being
sentenced.
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