Uli Hoeness and Dirk Bauermann during better times – the two sides are still trying to negotiate the settlement after Bauermann’s firing.
It was probably the biggest firing in German basketball history and it appeared that hoops fans would finally get to hear Dirk Bauermann’s side of the story after being sacked from Bayern Munich six days before the start of the season. But Bauermann pulled out of appearing on the Sky Germany football talkshow Sky90 Sunday night in the last minute – and speculation is to increase his severance settlement.
Bayern and Bauermann have yet to come to terms on cancelling their contract, which was due to run until 2014. And Bauermann had yet to make any public statements or appearances since his firing made shockwaves on September 27. That made it all the more intriguing that Bauermann was to appear on Sky90 – which airs just minutes after the final football match of the weekend and talks about the weekend in the German Bundesliga.
The show’s host Patrick Wasserziehr announced at the beginning of the show that Bauermann had pulled out of his appearance for “personal reasons”.
That left the basketball world speculating if and when they would hear from Bauermann, especially after Bayern president Uli Hoeness publicly criticized Germany’s most successful basketball coach in history on television about a week after the firing. Hoeness said, among other things, that Bauermann should not have been surprised by his being let go – saying that Bauermann had “lost touch with reality” and questioning the work ethic and discipline of the Munich players.
The Munich Abendzeitung daily speculated that Bauermann turned down appearing on the show to avoid weakening his position on the settlement, which according to AZ’s information is about 1 million euros.