According to ESPN, Bayern Munich was promoting a new app and told fans if they logged onto Facebook, they could see the signing live.
When fans logged on, however, they saw the team’s general manager Christian Nerlinger with an envelope. The envelope reportedly had the users’ Facebook profile pictures on it as well as their own name on the back of a Bayern Munich No. 8 jersey.
A new post on Bayern Munich’s Facebook page read, “Dear fans, you probably already noticed, that we did not sign a new player. This app is for our fans to show the importance of you for our club.”
Later on Thursday, the club’s website read, “Every single FCB fan is the ‘spectacular new signing,’ our [twelfth] man!”
All of this was a marketing attempt, however, for the new app. ESPN reported that “…within minutes, an angry backlash from Bayern fans appeared as over 3,000 users [and climbing] accused the club of wasting their time and getting their hopes up for nothing.”
The club issued an apology on Friday to its fans, claiming there was no intention of upsetting fans.
“Based on the many comments we received, there are many Facebook fans of Bayern Munich who were not happy with our action,” said the statement. “We are sorry. It was not our intention to disappoint with the new FC Bayern app.”
Photo via Facebook/FC Bayern Munchen
