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Bayern president Uli Hoeness sentenced over tax evasion

By on March 13, 2014

Former FIFA World Cup winner and president of Bayern Munich Uli Hoeness has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison by Germany’s Federal Court of Justice on account of seven cases of tax evasion of millions of euros.  Hoeness evaded a total of €27.2m through an undeclared Swiss bank account, as proved by an investigation of over 70,000 pages of documents submitted by the 62-year-old’s defense team.

This sum is a hefty amount more than the evasion of €3.2 million that Hoeness was originally charged for, and still nearly double the amount than the €15 million the German himself claimed to have evaded at the opening of his trial on Monday.  It also emerged that Hoeness has failed to disclose his accounts within the law, capping off what has been grim trial for the defense team, who have been given seven days to form an appeal to the prison sentence issued to the former Bayern Munich and West Germany forward.

Hoeness was part of West Germany’s successful World Cup squad in 1974 during his short decade-long playing career, while also making 239 senior appearances for Bayern Munich before being appointed the club’s commercial and general manager immediately after retirement. The co-owner of a Nurnberg-based bratwurst factory made his was up to become president of the Bavarians, and has overseen a period of exponential growth with Bayern. The German champions’ revenue has increased tenfold under Hoeness, but the 1972 European Championship winner may now be forced to resign in the wake of the tax scandal. Yet Bayern, are yet to comment on the case, although a statement from officials from the club, including representatives of Adidas, German Telekom, Volkswagen and Audi, are reportedly set to release a statement on Thursday.

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.