Herbert Hainer stresses the importance of solidarity between clubs during pandemic

In a visit to the Münchner Tafel, where Bayern Munich’s basketball team was helping local employees with unloading food deliveries, Herbert Hainer spoke to the press about the importance of solidarity between the clubs in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic (AZ). A significant amount of money will be lost throughout the Bundesliga, and it’s the teams towards the bottom of the table and in the lower German leagues that are being hit the hardest from a financial standpoint.

The top four clubs — Bayern, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, and Bayer Leverkusen — have already announced that they’ll give all of their Champions League television money into a collective DFL pot to help some of the more financially vulnerable clubs. The stronger clubs helping the weaker ones during this time is an absolute necessity, Hainer said:

Also in football, the stronger have to help the weaker, because we all want to see football games and a Bundesliga with many teams in the future again. That’s why it goes without saying.

Hainer said that Bayern has always been a club and organization that has led by example, largely thanks to the leadership of his predecessor, Uli Hoeness:

Bayern München was always a leader in this role — thanks to Uli Hoeness, who has an incredibly social heart. We obviously want to continue that, also in collaboration with the other Bundesliga clubs.

The footballing world, like the rest of the world, will not be the same after the COVID-19 pandemic has dissipated. Hainer said he expects the transfer market to change as well once the crisis passes:

It definitely will not be like it was in terms of the transfer market and transfer fees. I suspect and hope that some sense will return to the transfer market in particular.

You can see some footage of the basketball team helping out at the Münchner Tafel below. Hainer starts speaking at around the 2:33 mark: