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Aaron Hickey intrigued by Bayern Munich (BBC)
Bayern Munich is courting 18-year-old Hearts player Aaron Hickey. Hickey is in his last year of contract and has attracted wide interest. Besides Bayern Munich, Aston Villa and Serie A team Bologna are reported to be seriously interested.
Also, in the Championship, Sheffield has shown interest in Hickey, as has Celtic in the Scottish Premiership. Hickey’s home club, Hearts, was relegated from the Scottish Premiership this season.
The BBC says that Hearts value Hickey at £1.5m (approximately €1.67). According to them, Hickey “is also keen to find out more from Bayern and what they have to offer.”
Hoeness downplays club interest in Havertz (kicker)
Former Bayern president Uli Hoeness stated in an interview with FAZ that he does not believe Bayern will pursue Bayer Leverkusen star Kai Havertz after signing Leroy Sané.
Hoeness stated, “In the coronavirus era, I can’t imagine completing another transfer of 70, 80 or more million after one of just under 50 without guaranteed counter-financing through player sales.”
“I’m sure that there will not be any more big transfers for us after Leroy Sané this year,” Hoeness said. A sale of Thiago remains a serious possibility, while Havertz has been closely linked to Chelsea FC in the absence of interest from Munich.
Hoeness criticizes rapid player turnover at BVB (kicker)
Borussia Dortmund’s transfer policy is “not clever” in the opinion of Uli Hoeness. In the same FAZ interview, the former Bayern president criticized Dortmund for de facto encouraging a mercenary culture among its players. Hoeness said,
“When Dortmund buys a highly talented player and he plays well, a few months later you hear either from the club itself or from the outside, that he will be presented as put up for sale at some point. How is a player supposed to absorb the DNA of a club one hundred percent, when he has the feeling that he’s up for sale?”
At Bayern, Hoeness went on, “We get players for Bayern Munich. And never to do business with them.” He cited the famous example of Robert Lewandowski, whose efforts to move to Real Madrid Hoeness thwarted:
“He sat here with me in the summer two years ago and said, ‘Mr. Hoeness, you absolutely have to talk with Mr. Zahavi. That was his new agent. I said, ‘Yes, sure, my next opening is on September 3,” Hoeness said. The transfer window normally closes on August 31.
Hoeness admitted that Dortmund is still an attractive destination despite their financial disadvantage: “They can’t touch us in sponsoring, but they have still canceled out our financial advantage quite nicely. With Sancho, we had settled everything, but at the last moment he decided in favor of Dortmund.”
German legal report support feasibility of Europe-wide salary cap (kicker)
Two legal reports commissioned by SPD politician Thomas Oppermann have argued that a salary cap is indeed feasible provided that it is introduced by UEFA.
The idea of a salary cap has gained traction in Germany since the coronavirus pandemic turned the soccer world upside down. Bayern Munich’s own CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge publicly supported the idea in late April.
The thrust of the reports is apparently that a salary cap my be justified for the benefit of paying customers. Since “the uncertainty of the outcome of a game rises,” the entertainment value of the whole package — Fußball itself — is enhanced. The reports cite the lack of excitement at the top of the major leagues, including the “monotony of the Bundesliga on account of the dominance of Bayern Munich.”
Oppermann, who presides over the the ethics committee of the DFB, wants to sound out the odds of “backing such a regulation through European law” at a meeting in Brussels this fall.
The reports will be presented to the clubs of the Bundesliga and 2.Bundesliga at the DFL members’ assembly on Tuesday. “At a blow, the entire business model of soccer was on the brink because of the coronavirus crisis, Oppermann said. A salary cap is one way German clubs are considering to guarantee the future of their clubs and leagues.