Football
PA Sport 10y

Rummenigge hits out at schedule

Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has accused his club's league rivals of coercing to make life difficult for the record German champions.

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The Bundesliga season commences on Aug. 22 with Bayern's World Cup winners in training for only a few weeks at that stage.

Rummenigge had requested at a meeting of club managers several months ago for a longer holiday to be given to those players involved in the World Cup by putting the start of the season back a week -- but they dismissed his suggestion.

"The reason for that is that they saw it as the only chance to cause Bayern any problems,'' Rummenigge told the Bild newspaper.

"I would like to see a bit more solidarity among the clubs who sent a lot of players to the World Cup. Dortmund also sent eight or nine players.''

Bayern were hardest hit by Germany's success in Brazil with seven players all involved in the final last Sunday.

They are not due to start preseason training until the first week in August, leaving them only a few weeks to prepare for the start of the new season and Bayern's opening clash with Wolfsburg on Friday, Aug. 22.

That puts the record champions at a disadvantage, according to Rummenigge, who nevertheless believes his club have the best coach to deal with it in Pep Guardiola.

"He had this same experience in 2010 when he was in charge of Barcelona and many of his player came back late as world champions, but Barca still defended their league title and won the Champions League,'' he said.

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