Bayern Munich’s honorary and outspoken president Uli Hoeneß tore into Liverpool, deriding the club’s summer transfer business and presenting an image of faux pity for Florian Wirtz, who is suffering as a consequence of the apparent selfishness riddled throughout the squad.
Hoeneß is no stranger to outspoken comments. This is a character who has openly derided agents as “greedy piranhas” and never shies away from persecuting individual players, even if they play for Bayern. One of Hoeneß’s most potent trigger-points is the financial excess of the Premier League, which operates on a wildly different model to the fan-owned clubs of the Bundesliga.
Liverpool exemplified this financial heft over the summer with a total outlay of almost £450 million ($595.1 million). Bayern, by way of comparison, have spent around £370 million over the past three years combined.
Even in the face of this expenditure, Liverpool have desperately struggled to defend their Premier League title. Sunday’s 2–0 victory over relegation-scrapping West Ham United ended a ruinous run of nine defeats in 12 games. Hoeneß did not bother hiding his schadenfreude.
“They spent €500 million and are having a disastrous season,” he cackled in front of 10,000 spectators at a business event in Munich’s Olympic Hall which was covered by . “In my opinion, that’s because they only have superstars. They only have chiefs and no Indians—I shouldn’t even say that, they’re indigenous people.”
