FIFA presidential candidate Jerome Champagne has defended Bayern Munich over their recent trip to Saudi Arabia.
Bayern played a friendly against Saudi Arabian outfit Al-Hilal in Riad on Saturday, which reportedly earned the club over a million euros, with the fee paid by Bayern stakeholders Volkswagen, according to Suddeutsche Zeitung.
The Bundesliga champions then faced questions over their failure to address human right issues in the country, with criticism from FIFA Executive Committee member Theo Zwanziger, German politicians, Bayern fans and the media.
In a written statement, Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge acknowledged that they made mistakes, saying the club "condemns all forms of cruel punishment that are not consistent with human rights, as in the current case involving blogger Raif Badawi, a critic of Islam. It would have been better to clearly address this on the occasion of our match in Saudi Arabia."
Rummenigge, however, refused to accept that his club bore the full weight of responsibility for political matters in the country, and said that "leading German politicians will also be travelling to Saudi Arabia in the near future."
However, on Thursday, Jerome Champagne, who is hoping to stand for FIFA presidency in May 2015, told Sky Deutschland in comments reported by Bild: "I completely disagree with the criticism of Bayern Munich.
"To only criticise FC Bayern is a case of double standards when at the same time companies and politicians have ties to Saudi Arabia. A financial exchange still exists, as well as a cultural exchange. The Goethe Institute [a mostly state-funded non-profit German cultural association] in Saudi Arabia has not closed its doors despite the unjust flogging of the blogger.
"You have to travel there and defend your values. Of course Bayern should have said that they are for human rights and against other things, and that they play there regardless."