FC Bayern: Herbert Hainer refuses to commit to Oliver Kahn

The heavily criticized CEO Oliver Kahn excludes a premature farewell to the German record champions Bayern Munich. “Of course I’ll still be here (next season, ed.),” Kahn said with a laugh on Sunday after the difficult 2-0 (0-0) win against Hertha BSC in the Bundesliga. President Herbert Hainer had previously refused to make a commitment to the chairman of the board.

“Yes, we have a regular board meeting at the end of May,” added Kahn. “We’ll come together, we’ll be very critical of each other, be very analytical and ask ourselves many, many questions. There is certainly a need for discussion here and there: Where can we improve? But that’s all in the future.”

“There’s always a lot of talk and discussion going on at Bayern,” said the former world-class goalkeeper. “My focus is not on any discussions, just the German championship. That’s what it’s about.”

Previously, Hainer had made ambiguous statements. “Believe me, we’re all concentrating on the sporting side now,” said Hainer when asked: “Otherwise we analyze and debate the overall situation. We calmly discuss it internally and very carefully, just like Bayern Munich does used to.”

The decision on Kahn’s future is to be made in the meeting on May 22nd, between the 33rd and 34th Bundesliga matchday. “We always set the dates a year in advance,” said Hainer, “maybe we’ll have decided the championship by then.” The most important thing is “what happens down on the pitch – and that we win the eleventh German championship”.

Sport director Hasan Salihamidzic insisted that he “could deal with these situations quite well” and that he was trying to do his “job”: “I always make the decisions that are for the benefit of FC Bayern, work 24/7 and try to be in everyone Being there for everyone every minute. (…) I can’t influence everything else.”