Scissors Kick

“‘It will not last forever,’ Martin says on this day in late March. Before the game, Berlin was hit by hail storms. Temperatures have gone down again, too. Spring, it feels, is still a faraway place. The fans outside the Olympiastadion still sport their between-season jackets; you can barely see the jerseys popping up underneath the collar. But on this very day, Bayern Munich were out to break another Bundesliga record — to win the fastest-ever Bundesliga title. Though mid-table Hertha Berlin made them sweat in the second half, Bayern’s 3-1 win took the Bavarians over the finish line.” ESPN

“Uli Hoeness, the president of Bayern Munich and an icon of German club soccer, could end up behind bars for tax evasion. The case has highlighted the dark side of the skilful entrepreneur and philanthropist whose burning ambition made Bayern what it is today — and has now triggered his fall from grace. Although he is not sitting in jail awaiting trial, although he has not been convicted, although he can sit in a stadium dressed in a suit with a red-and-white scarf and can spend his nights at home, Uli Hoeness, the president of top German soccer club Bayern Munich, is already a prisoner. He is a prisoner of a small device — not an electronic shackle or a beacon that informs the authorities of his whereabouts. The device is a receiver. It informs its owner of developments on stock markets around the world, and Hoeness can’t stop himself from constantly staring at it.” Der Spiegel – Part 1: The Rise And Fall of a Soccer Saint, Part 2: Jail Sentence Possible, Part 3: Chatting With Merkel, Part 4: A Duopoly in the Bundesliga (May 1, 2013)

The rise and fall of Uli Hoeness – Bayern president will not appeal sentence
“Uli Hoeness has decided not to appeal against his three and a half year prison sentence for tax evasion and has offered his definitive resignation as president of Bayern Munich. Initially, after the sentence delivered yesterday by Judge Rupert Heindl, the 64-year-old defence team had claimed the right to appeal. However Hoeness said today that, after discussions with his family, he felt the only responsible action was to accept to sentence and also to step down from his positions with the world, European and German champions.” World Soccer

“It isn’t very often that football clubs win prizes, as opposed to trophies, unless they happen to be awards handed out by football associations. But last month, Borussia Moenchengladbach won a proper award. It goes by the name of the Future Prize 2014 and is handed out by the Israel Foundation in Germany. Gladbach earned it for having used ‘football as a bridge of understanding’ — as the foundation put it in the explanation. What this means is, quite simply, that no German club has done as much for improving relations between the two nations and peoples.” ESPN