Under fire Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness spent half an hour in the team dressing room on Saturday after their record-breaking 1-0 Bundesliga win over Freiburg as a tax evasion scandal continues to plague him.
"He made a good impression," said Bayern's sports director Matthias Sammer when asked about Hoeness' visit before offering his support.
"If I could do something to make things easier for him, I would do it.
"He knows that, I'll always be at his side and he can always count on me."
The 61-year-old Hoeness is reported to have been arrested last month during a search of his home, then released on bail of five million euros ($6.5 million) as part of an investigation into a Swiss bank account he had declared.
Since the scandal broke, there have been calls for him to resign, and reports on Friday suggest Bayern's executive board are considering asking him to step down until the investigation is concluded.
Hoeness admitted to magazine Focus last weekend that he had first turned himself in to authorities in January over an unspecified amount of unpaid taxes on cash in a Swiss bank account.
He had originally planned to come forward after an expected German-Swiss tax accord which would have allowed him to settle the matter anonymously with a one-off payment, he told the Focus news weekly.
But Hoeness is not the only Bayern senior figure falling offside with the authorities.
According to reports, chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge got himself in trouble with customs officials after failing to declare two Rolex watches he bought on a trip to Qatar on February 7.
Rummenigge failed to pay the required 19 percent import tax on the two watches and the Bayern chairman paid the overdue sum.
Source: AFP
