Bizarre Champions League stories Cheat Tapie, lifesaver Hoeness and the confused bird

The new Champions League season starts on Tuesday. It's high time to look back at four bizarre stories from the top flight.

We know Uli Hoeness as the heart and brain of FC Bayern, as a doer and football visionary as well as a bully and populist. There is also one thing he is undisputedly, as those who know him claim: a kind-hearted person.

When the then Aarau player and former Bayern professional Lars Lunde woke up from a coma after a traffic accident in 1988, Hoeness sat by his bedside. He later took him into his home and took care of Lunde's rehabilitation. Just one of many stories.

A similar story took place when Bayern competed in the Champions League in Kiev in the 90s. While visiting a children's clinic, he met Ivan, a boy with cancer who was apparently waiting in vain for a life-saving bone marrow donation. Hoeness, however, immediately took the initiative and had Ivan flown to Munich. Fortunately, a donor was found there. Ivan's life was saved. Mainly thanks to Hoeness.

Olympique Marseille were the first Champions League winners in 1993 - until 1992, the competition was still known as the European Cup of Champions. OM beat AC Milan 1-0 in Munich thanks to a header from Basile Boli. The stars were Barthez, Desailly, Papin and Völler. The coach was the Belgian veteran Raymond Goethals (then 71).

The French cheered like there was no tomorrow. The club was led by Zampano Bernard Tapie (1943 to 2021), a colorful dog who ran Adidas, was a minister in the Mitterrand government - and had demonstrably bribed Valenciennes players in the championship.

Tapie wanted to secure the championship title early and save his team for the final. The championship was stripped from the team from southern France. They were allowed to keep the premier league title - even though rumors persist to this day that Marseille had doped before the final. Tapie was sent to prison for eight months. And OM remained not only the first, but also probably the most dubious CL winner in history.

Before the 1999 final against Man United in Barcelona, Bayern eccentric Mario Basler sat at the hotel bar late into the night. He laughed, joked and drank, as he later recounted almost flirtatiously. Warnings from teammates and threats from board members did not affect the brilliant right-footer. Only coach Ottmar Hitzfeld successfully made himself heard, as he made it clear that he would not field Basler if he did not go to the room.

Nevertheless, Basler turned the ball into the England goal after a few minutes with a free kick. Bayern had everything under control, hitting the post and the crossbar. And as boss Franz Beckenbauer made his way towards the pitch for the presentation ceremony, United legend Sir Bobby Charlton congratulated him on his victory. The rest is history: by the time Beckenbauer was standing on the sidelines, United had turned the game around thanks to Sheringham and Solskjaer.

2:1 for United, whose manager Alex Ferguson could not have summed up the game better: "Football, bloody hell!" Football, a bloody hell! Not for Basler, by the way. He said that he had come to terms with the defeat within 30 minutes. "At the end of the day, I was dancing on the table."

In 1995, GC became the first Swiss team to qualify for the group stage. Sion, Aarau and Servette had previously failed. GC prevailed against the Israeli champions Maccabi Tel-Aviv. After a 1:1 draw at the Hardturm, GC won 1:0 away from home thanks to Alexandre Comisetti.

It was 35 degrees in Tel Aviv. Manager Erich Vogel cheered in a soaking wet shirt and stormed onto the pitch. But the heat obviously didn't agree with him. He threw himself at a player in GC kit, drunk with victory - without meeting with approval.

There was a simple reason for the player's irritated and annoyed reaction: he had just swapped shirts with Comisetti, the scorer of the winning goal. In the group stage, GC lost to Ferencvaros Budapest, Ajax Amsterdam and Real Madrid by two points.

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