Uli Hoeness - Photo by Imago
Welcome officially to the German basketball Bundesliga Uli Hoeneß. After 12 straight road defeats, the Bayern Munich president has all but ordered his team to beat Fraport Skyliners on Saturday in Frankfurt – the first real outburst regarding Bayern’s basketball team.
“We have to finally stop being so nice. In terms of budget, we are one of the top two or three teams in the league. We can’t keep constantly being picked apart by the small teams. Now we need to clean up around here,” Hoeneß said in the German mass daily Bild on Friday.
Above the story, the newspaper splashed the headline: “Boss puts pressure on Bayern baskets” with the sub-heading: “Too expensive to lose against the smaller ones”.
Hoeneß is well known for his public out-bursts regarding the Bayern Munich football team. But until now he had refrained from getting too loud about the basketball team.
But 12 straight road losses – eight of them in the Bundesliga – are too many and Bayern are in a fight for the lower playoff spots at 12-10 – just two losses fewer than 11th placed Walter Tigers Tübingen.
Bayern, whose 7 million euro budget is more than double that of the Skyliners, have not won on the road since October 15, 2011. But Dirk Bauermann’s team has been a bit unlucky away from home with four losses by three points or less.
Bauermann until now has been saved by his team’s 11-1 record at home. Hoeneß has finally gone public with his frustration and the Bundesliga finally has the Hoeneß they thought – and hoped – they would be getting when the whole Munich project started.