The Bayern professionals celebrate the victory at the season opener in Frankfurt.Image: imago / Kessler sports photography
Bundesliga
FC Bayern wants everything. The record champions are still represented in all three competitions and have a chance of winning the title in the league, in the cup and in the Uefa Champions League.
In particular, the Bavarian European Cup ambitions were probably the reason why the Bayern bosses did not want to trust Sven Ulreich after Neuer’s skiing accident and signed Yann Sommer from Gladbach.
With Yann Sommer, Bayern feel prepared for Champions League round of 16 opponents Paris St. Germain.Image: dpa / Hendrik Schmidt
Oliver Kahn and Hasan Salihamidžić already invested more than 100 million euros in new players in the summer in order to be prepared for the title hunt. Now, of all things, the most expensive new signing threatens to break away shortly before the Champions League round of 16.
Uefa investigates: did de Ligt collect black money from Juve?
According to the latest reports, central defender Matthijs de Ligt is threatened with a 30-day suspension for allegedly being involved in the cheating scandal at his ex-club Juventus Turin.
For the services of Matthijs de Ligt, FC Bayern transferred 67 million euros to Turin in the summer.Image: dpa / Uwe Anspach
The Old Lady was sentenced by an Italian association court last week sanctioned with a point deduction of 15 points for falsifying the balance sheet. The football court found it proven that Juve glossed over the market values of their players in order to justify the wage bill.
In the meantime, allegations have been made that the players should have earned part of their salary on the black: Accordingly, the professionals would have officially signed a salary waiver at the beginning of the pandemic, but the salary was then secretly paid to them anyway.
A chat history leaked by the Italian journalist Paolo Ziliani shows how team captain Giorgio Chiellini explains the scam to his teammates and orders silence from the outside.
This is what Uefa is now calling on the scene: The European association is now examining the finances of Turin. If the allegations are confirmed, the players involved also face a 30-day ban, as Ziliani reports.
Cristiano Ronaldo could also be suspended – de Ligt cooperates
Should the players themselves be proven to have acted willfully, it would be completely irrelevant for which club they are currently playing. That would also be a bitter blow for FC Bayern: The defender could miss important games in the league, cup or Champions League if in doubt.
Other prominent ex-Juve players could also be affected: superstar Cristiano Ronaldo was still playing in Turin at the beginning of the pandemic. He too will at least have read Chiellini’s Whatsapp messages. However, he could not care much about a Uefa ban – he has now moved to Saudi Arabia to FC Al-Nassr.
Cristiano Ronaldo is now playing in Riyadh.Image: AP / dpa
At De Ligt, there is at least a glimmer of hope: According to Ziliani, the Bayern professional is said to have been instrumental in dealing with the scandal. Among other things, he is said to have made the now gleakten chat histories available to the Italian court. However, it is still unclear whether this cooperation with the Italian association will ensure him the leniency of Uefa.
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