A fatal FC Bayern mishap that also embarrassed Uli Hoeneß

Bayern have often been annoyed with Dietmar “Didi” Hamann in recent years because he is an expert in… Heaven doesn't mince his words – sports director Max Eberl has just compared him to “tinnitus”.

But even when the 2002 World Cup runner-up was still wearing the Bayern jersey, he caused them a lot of problems. Although involuntary and certainly through no fault of their own, Bayern's most embarrassing defeat in Frankfurt, where the record champions have to travel again on Sunday (from 5:30 p.m. in LIVETICKER), is closely linked to his name.

His effort turned Munich's biggest victory in the Waldstadion into a defeat – probably the most embarrassing in the long, painful history of the duel. Frankfurt is one of three current Bundesliga locations where Bayern have a negative record.

It was April 15, 1995: The Internet was not yet widespread and the smartphone was even more distant – which played a role on this Bundesliga Saturday.

A 2:5 shone on the scoreboard in Frankfurt and most Eintracht fans went home frustrated, unaware that there was something wrong with Bayern's victory. Why? Because the record champions weren't entirely regular or, as Mocker said, couldn't count to four.

She already had enough problems. In the spring of 1995, the title was already a long way off in sixth place and all that was at stake was a place in the UEFA Cup. They never expected points in Frankfurt because of all the humiliations in the seventies and eighties (19 years without a win, including a 0:6 in the Beckenbauer era and a 1:5 in the Breitnigge era). Especially since they had major personnel concerns this time.

Only twelve professionals were on the match report, there were only nine on the pitch. Goalkeeper Oliver Kahn was missing after a torn cruciate ligament, his representative Sven Scheuer was officially an amateur, as was the young central defender Sammy Kuffour. They played from the start and after 25 minutes Thomas Helmer limped off the pitch. He was replaced by Marco Grimm, the third representative of the amateur division. The guests playing in yellow/green led 3-2 at the break – a result that neither looked nor tasted like the defensive king on the Bayern bench, the Italian Giovanni Trapattoni.

Now he wanted to at least save his slim lead over time. At 4:45 p.m. he left his reservists to warm up. Eleven minutes later he decided to take striker Marcel Witeczek out of the game. The offensive players, Alain Sutter and Michael Sternkopf, had to go back to the bench, and the last defensive player on the scoresheet came: Dietmar Hamann.

However, he could no longer use it because Hamann was also still an amateur – and more than three were only allowed with prior special permission. She had obtained this the previous week, but this time no official had thought of it. That fell into the realm of manager Uli Hoeneß, who usually always looked so far ahead.

Bayern's press chief Markus Hörwick was the first to recognize the disaster and rushed down from the stands. But the distances are long in the Waldstadion and almost no one had cell phones, especially not on the bench. Hörwick also arrived down late and Hamann was substituted on at 4:57 p.m. What very few people knew: From minute 73 onwards, the game was lost for Bayern. Eintracht manager Bernd Hölzenbein, who died this year, noticed it more than his colleague Hoeneß, with whom he had become world champion around 20 years earlier. “How many amateurs do Bayern have on the pitch?” he asked a reporter and was answered: “Four, one too many.”

The game was still going strong when DFB press officer Wolfgang Niersbach had to answer questions about the rules on the way to his car, as the rumor of Trapattoni's substitution mistake was gradually making the rounds. Nobody on the pitch had noticed the mishap, Bayern scored two more goals and celebrated after referee Eugen Strigel's final whistle. The 5:2 was the highest win they had ever achieved in the Waldstadion – today the record is 6:1, on the first matchday of 2022/23.

Of course, it seemed strange to them that Hoeneß, who had been informed by Hörwick, muzzled everyone and waved them into the cabin. Motto: Don't give any thoughtless interviews now. At 5:45 p.m. Trapattoni admitted his mistake and Hoeneß didn't leave him out in the cold: “This is human error. It's also my fault and that of Klaus Augenthaler. And it's always embarrassing.” Augenthaler was Bayern's assistant coach at the time and was supposed to go one step further as interim coach a year later when he substituted four players against Fortuna Düsseldorf; three were only allowed until the Corona outbreak.

But back to the Trapattoni goal: Since Eintracht Frankfurt immediately protested, the prescribed procedure followed. The case ended up before the sports court and it didn't have to take long: According to the licensed player statute §25, paragraph 4, the use of a player who was not eligible to play resulted in “the game being assessed as lost for the club”.

Bavaria hired a renowned lawyer in Reinhard Rauball, but even the later BVB president could no longer save the points. A week later, the 5:2 became 0:2 and until his angry speech in March 1998, Frankfurt's substitution mistake was the most notable episode in the Trapattoni era.

It wasn't the last embarrassment for Bayern in Frankfurt: just think of the 1:5 in November 2019, when Eintracht ended the term of Niko Kovac, their former coach, at Bayern. There was also a similar result for Tuchel-Bayern last December. But the record champions have probably never made themselves more ridiculous than on the day when Uli Hoeneß couldn't count to four.