Uli Hoeness, president of European football champions Bayern Munich, has been charged with tax evasion after he reported himself to the German authorities earlier this year.

In January Hoeness admitted having an undeclared Swiss bank account and has been under investigation since April. He now has one month to respond to the charges through his defence team, after which the court in Munich will decide whether or not to hear the case.

Prosecutors declined to give details of the charges against him, citing tax secrecy laws.

The case has caused a political stir in Germany, which holds its elections on 22 September. A long awaited German-Swiss tax treaty which would have allowed Germans with undeclared assets in Switzerland to pay a withholding tax while retaining their anonymity, was rejected by German legislators at the end of 2012.

Hoeness, who helped West Germany win the 1974 World Cup as a player, has been at Bayern Munich for most of the past four decades, and now runs a successful sausage-making business. The son of a butcher, he is considered a high-profile public figure, speaking on entrepreneurial issues as well as football, and has been quoted as once saying, 'I may be stupid but I pay my taxes.'

Bayern Munich and its backers, including Audi and Adidas, have so far stood by Hoeness, and his offer to step aside in May was rejected by the club's board. The team won the treble this year, taking the German cup, the Bundesliga and the Champions League.

German media reports suggest Hoeness deposited millions of euros in an account in Zurich over a 10-year period, and that the money was used to play the stock markets between 2002 and 2006. He is understood to have failed to pay capital gains tax.

Tax evasion of more than €1m (£870m) is punishable with a prison sentence in Germany.