‘No criticism of our 12 million true fans’

Discussion in 'Europe' started by CelticKing, Nov 22, 2007.

  1. CelticKing

    CelticKing The Green Monster

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    <span class="fcc003318px">&lsquo;No criticism of our 12 million true fans&rsquo;</span></p>

    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p>

    The Bundesliga is taking a break at the moment, but fierce debate surrounds Bayern in the media and among fans after Uli Hoene&szlig;&rsquo; impassioned statements at the AGM, a flurry of transfer rumours, speculation over Lukas Podolski&rsquo;s future at the club, and much more. Interviewed on Bavarian TV&rsquo;s Monday evening Blickpunkt Sport, Uli Hoene&szlig; clarified his position on the current situation at the club. fcbayern.de summarises the general manager&rsquo;s most significant statements.

    Uli Hoene&szlig; on&hellip;

    &hellip;his angry outburst at the AGM: &ldquo;The force of my emotions has created the impression that I was attacking our fans. That&rsquo;s total nonsense. Bayern has 2,300 official fan clubs with 165,000 members &ndash; I wasn&rsquo;t addressing any single one of these people. There are two groups, not registered as fan clubs, who have applied a huge amount of pressure to the club, especially in recent months &ndash; and I was talking to them. They&rsquo;re after more power and influence, they want control of the entire South terrace. I&rsquo;ve spoken at length with both groups in recent weeks and we&rsquo;ve fundamentally met their demands. I had the feeling we were approaching an accommodation, but then they stood up on the evening and repeated their accusations, and I lost my rag. In the first place, I don&rsquo;t think the atmosphere in the stadium is at all bad, and second, I&rsquo;m of the opinion it&rsquo;s precisely these two groups who don&rsquo;t want a decent atmosphere. They won&rsquo;t allow our other fan clubs any chance to participate. They&rsquo;re acting as if they alone represent the entire Bayern fan scene. We&rsquo;re talking about 300 to 500 people, but Bayern has a total of 12 million fans.&rdquo;

    &hellip;talk of a crisis at the club: &ldquo;Karl-Heinz Rummenigge simply said he wasn&rsquo;t happy with the way rotation was working, but that created the impression of a split. We&rsquo;ve learnt that we should try and let off steam behind closed doors. Whenever anything happens at Bayern, it&rsquo;s reported as a minor earthquake. Since then, we&rsquo;ve had a productive series of talks with Ottmar Hitzfeld, and we&rsquo;re in complete agreement now.&ldquo;

    &hellip;reported interest in Liverpool coach Rafael Benitez: &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve not spoken to Liverpool nor to Senor Benitez. I&rsquo;m a very good friend of Ottmar Hitzfeld and I&rsquo;ve given him my word that he&rsquo;s the first person we&rsquo;ll talk to in the winter break. If our talks are successful, we&rsquo;ll have no need to talk to anyone else. If there&rsquo;s no result, we&rsquo;ll start thinking about another coach. But until we&rsquo;ve talked to Ottmar in the winter break, you can take it there&rsquo;s nothing to any rumours.&ldquo;

    &hellip;Val&eacute;rien Ismael&rsquo;s future: &ldquo;Ottmar Hitzfeld has told Val&eacute;rien that he has no first-team role at the moment. Val&eacute;rien replied that in that case, he&rsquo;d like to find a new club during the winter break. We&rsquo;ve agreed to his request. If he finds a club, he can leave.&ldquo;

    &hellip;Brazilian central defender Breno: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re interested in the player. We&rsquo;ve opened talks, but there&rsquo;s no final result just yet. If he&rsquo;s coming, it&rsquo;ll be in the winter break.&ldquo;

    &hellip;rumours linking Philipp Lahm with Barcelona: &ldquo;When you have a player like Philipp Lahm, whose contract expires in 2009, you&rsquo;re bound to get any number of approaches. But I&rsquo;m assuming Philipp will talk to us first. I cannot believe he&rsquo;d negotiate with Barcelona behind our backs.&ldquo;

    &hellip;Lukas Podolski: &ldquo;Lukas has come on extremely well in recent weeks. He&rsquo;s tackled the enormous challenge we&rsquo;ve set him. When he&rsquo;s played, he&rsquo;s been brilliant, against Bolton for example. He&rsquo;s thrown himself into it and has become a genuine alternative. If he&rsquo;s learnt to grit his teeth and get stuck in &ndash; something he didn&rsquo;t have to do in Cologne &ndash; and keeps it up, he&rsquo;ll make the breakthrough here, I&rsquo;m convinced of that.&ldquo;</div></p>
     

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