BERLIN: Relations between league champions Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, who face each other in next month’s German Cup final, have become frozen over a bitter row stemming from a decade-old loan, the Bavarian club’s CEO said on Wednesday.
The sides have been locked in an ongoing war of words over a $2.76 million (Rs 16.86 crore at today’s rates) loan Bayern granted to then cash-strapped Dortmund in 2004, with the Ruhr valley club saying the terms of the agreement were far from charitable.
“(Bayern president) Karl Hopfner represented the facts correctly after Dortmund claimed something that was incorrect,” Karl-Heinz Rummenigge told sport Bild magazine.
Hopfner had said Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke was not telling the truth when he claimed that the Bavarians had demanded an extortionate interest rate on the loan.
“It is what it is at the moment and so we will have a bit of an ice age in our relations,” he said.
“There are good times and bad times between clubs. That was the case in the past with Cologne under (then coach) Christoph Daum and that was also the case with Werder Bremen. We should not just cuddle,” Rummenigge said.
In the last four seasons, Dortmund have emerged as Bayern’s biggest challengers domestically and in Europe, winning the double in 2012 and the league in 2011 before losing to their southern rivals in the Champions League final last season.
They did, however, beat Bayern 3-0 in a Bundesliga match in Munich recently to reclaim some domestic bragging rights.
“Bayern does not need a peace summit and does not need any meeting (with Dortmund),” Rummenigge added.
“By that I mean in the future there will be no eating together prior to Bundesliga matches. Maybe that is more honest behaviour than meeting and reassuring of the respect that does not exist.”
Bayern, who remain on course for a second successive league, cup and intercontinental title treble, were to face Real Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League semifinal late on Wednesday. (Reuters)
