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This deal would have had bitter consequences: FC Bayern apparently only narrowly escaped a sponsorship debacle.
Last year, the German soccer record champions negotiated a contract with Wirecard and was about to enter into a partnership with the now insolvent financial services provider.
A research by "Süddeutscher Zeitung", WDR and NDR uncovered this.
In June 2020, Wirecard admitted that it would not be able to document assets of more than 1.9 billion euros.
The long-time chairman of the board, Markus Braun, resigned and was later arrested on charges of gang-style fraud, false revenue and market manipulation.
Scholz dismissed Bafin boss because of Wirecard
On June 25, 2020, Wirecard was the first DAX company to file for insolvency proceedings.
The Wirecard case is one of the biggest business crime stories in German history.
The company flew out of the Dax, Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz dismissed due to the scandal recently Felix Hufeld, the head of the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bafin).
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"Wirecard and FC Bayern - that was close," is the headline of the current article by NDR on sportschau.de.
According to this, the company should transfer an annual sponsorship amount of seven million euros to the Munich club from July 2020 in order to jointly develop "new business areas" and to "bundle professional expertise, their contacts and their know-how in partnership."
Hansi Flick on viewers and comebacks from Javi and Goretzka
FC Bayern are in the final of the FIFA Club World Cup after defeating Al-Ahly.
Coach Hansi Flick speaks about the semifinals in front of spectators and possible comebacks from Leon Goretzka and Javi Martinez.
Source: Stats Perform News
We are looking forward to a “partnership with Wirecard”, wrote Jörg Wacker, Board Member for Internationalization and Strategy at FC Bayern, according to the report, by email on June 10th to the company headquarters in Aschheim, Bavaria.
"It looks as if those responsible for Bavaria overlooked some alarm signals at Wirecard and in the end had more luck than sense," the article says.
1.5 million euros per year should also flow to the basketball department of the Munich.
The deal was announced on June 5, 2020.
On this day, however, the public prosecutor's office searched the Wirecard premises in Aschheim for the first time.
Reports could have been warnings
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Bayern's club leadership around CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and honorary president Uli Hoeneß is said to have invited leading Wirecard managers to a dinner at Tegernsee, where Hoeneß lives, at the end of May 2020, in order to conclude the partnership.
And this despite the fact that the "Financial Times" (FT) reported alleged grievances in the company at the beginning of 2019 and the auditor KPMG made a devastating verdict on Wirecard's structures in a special investigation at the end of April 2020.
Herbert Hainer, president and supervisory board chief of the FCB football AG and former Adidas boss, Wirecard CEO Markus Braun and Burkhard Ley, former chief financial officer and consultant in Aschheim, should be invited to the meal.
It is not yet known whether the appointment actually came.
Bavaria's CFO Alexander von Knoop became suspicious in October 2019 after another FT report and, according to the research, asked for a discussion with Wirecard officials.
Apparently, the company was able to dispel doubts, after all, the Munich-based company continued to press ahead with the conclusion of the partnership in the coming months.
FCB board member Jörg Wacker (center), here with Horst Seehofer (left), had email contact with Wirecard
Source: dpa-infocom GmbH
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At least on May 28, a ten-page draft contract followed at Wirecard, which Braun and Rummenigge were also supposed to sign, together with Bayern's board member Wacker.
Wirecard man Marsalek on the run
Those responsible for the club could actually have been warned about Wirecard boss Braun and his supposed success story.
The "Financial Times" even suspected that numerous Wirecard business partners in Asia had been invented.
This mainly affected the business area of board member Jan Marsalek, the number two at Wirecard.
Marsalek is on the run, his whereabouts are unknown.
He is wanted with an international arrest warrant for fraud in the billions.
In the Wirecard documents there is an email from October 27, 2019. At that time, the CFO Alexander von Knoop was asked internally in Aschheim whether he would be "ready for a call with FCB in the coming week".
The FCB board member Wacker "would like information from our board about the FT report from two weeks ago".
In the end, President Hainer is said to have contributed to the fact that the deal with Wirecard did not come about.
FC Bayern has not yet commented on the case.