Football
Mark Lovell, Bayern Munich blogger 8y

Uli Hoeness has right to second chance at Bayern Munich - FIFA's Eckert

FIFA Ethics Committee chairman Hans-Joachim Eckert says Uli Hoeness "didn't damage Bayern Munich commercially" despite his tax evasion conviction and added: "Everyone has a right to rehabilitation in society."

Hoeness, 64, was Bayern president between 2009 and 2014 but had to give up the role in March 2014, when convicted of evading millions of euros in tax through an undeclared Swiss bank account. 

Hoeness was released from prison in late February after serving half of his three-and-a-half-year sentence, and Bayern announced earlier this month that Hoeness will run in the club's presidential election in November, with no other candidates having put their names forward.

Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge also has a criminal record for failing to declare two luxury watches at Munich airport that he brought back from a trip to Qatar. Rummenigge, 60, accepted the punishment and promptly settled the case by paying a €249,900 fine to the state treasury in 2013. 

Asked by German magazine kicker what it said about football that the pair will be working for the Bayern hierarchy despite holding criminal records, Munich judge Eckert said: "After serving their punishment, under constitutional law, every offender is entitled to reintegrate themselves into society.

"Whether a club or association actually decides to do this, is purely their decision."

Eckert, who issued FIFA bans to prominent figures including Sepp Blatter, Jerome Valcke and Michel Platini, added: "Mr Hoeness was convicted, he paid back his tax debts and served his time, and therefore he has the opportunity for social rehabilitation"

"Furthermore, Uli Hoeness didn't damage FC Bayern commercially."

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