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Bayern Munich announced reforms to their youth performance center today in the wake of allegations of racism on the part of a youth coach who was terminated in August. In a press release (also, notably, released in English), the club stated that members of Bayern’s legal and human resources departments had concluded their investigation into the case on Thursday, October 16.
The investigation found actions in a subdivision of the youth performance center (housed in the FC Bayern Campus) “that violated labour law obligations and did not match the attitude of FC Bayern.” In response to those findings, “There will be structural changes and a new start for the youth teams from U9 to U15,” the club stated.
The area of the FC Bayern Campus in question, overseeing the youngest teams in the performance center, is indeed the same area that the suspected perpetrator was set to take over full time after retiring from coaching. Bayern still has not released the name of the former coach in question, and litigation between the club and the terminated coach is set to resume on January 13 after the parties failed to reach a settlement (Sportschau).
The thrust of the reforms appears to be to prevent the accumulation of power in the hands of a single person who then cannot be held accountable for his behavior. Bayern Munich said,
“In future, when determining the responsibilities of certain functions, responsibility will be transferred to several people. The importance of points of contact for problems at the NLZ is being repositioned; in addition, extensive, regular training and further education programs are developed and implemented.”
Director of Legal and Human Resources, Dr. Michael Gerlinger, said, “Anyone who works for FC Bayern must observe labour law standards and behave accordingly. In the course of the investigations, some significant violations of labour law obligations came to light. FC Bayern is committed to a cosmopolitan, diverse society. In our club we do not allow intolerance or discrimination. It pains us that our principles have been violated at this point. We will do everything we can to ensure something like this does not happen again.”