Kovac says that their position has not changed regarding Lewandowski’s future, and that he will not be sold.
“Our stance is clear: He won’t leave this club,” Kovac told Sky Germany. “Everyone’s entitled to voice his wish. And it’s right that Robert’s playing with the idea to go elsewhere. But it’s one thing what he would like to do and another thing what we want. He will see out his contract.”
Kovac confirmed in kicker that he will not make any changes to the squad’s hierarchy, and confirmed that Manuel Neuer will be staying.
“We could hand out eleven captain armbands every match,” Kovac said. “Everyone in the squad knows which value they have in the club. Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery, Mats Hummels, Jerome Boateng. They are all captains, just without the armband.”
Elsewhere, Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has called to end the 50+1 restrictions in Germany to increase the league’s competitiveness.
“We are facing difficult times if we continue like before” he said. “Our behaviour is sneered at here in the United States. We must stop promoting populism in this republic,” Rummenigge said. “It’s at an absurdly high level at most Bundesliga clubs and especially at the associations.”
“Germany will not remain the land of bliss. We either go this path [of scrapping the 50+1 rule] or we will pay the price for it. If we continue like that at the DFL [the German league body], and not only the DFB [the German FA], we are facing difficult times.”
The 50+1 rule, which stipulates that more than 50 percent of a club must be owned by its members, has been under attack from various clubs and individuals in football and media, causing discomfort for the active fans across the majority of the clubs.
Solving the conundrum of increasing competitiveness of the league while sticking to the league’s unique selling points like 50+1 is widely regarded as one of the biggest challenges in German football in the near future.
Earlier this year, the DFL, the umbrella organization for the 36 clubs of the upper two tiers, voted with a small majority in favour of generally retaining the 50+1 rule, and announced to start “a process to improve legal certainty and further reflection on changing framework conditions.”
German football has suffered in 2018, with Bayern Munich running away with a record sixth consecutive Bundesliga title, while in Europe, all teams bar Bayern exited at an early stage as no other side qualified for the knockout stages of Champions League.
The 2018 World Cup saw world champions Germany eliminated in the group stages for the first time.
In 2013, German club football peaked when Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund played the Champions League final at Wembley, and the Bundesliga moved up to second in the UEFA ranking, but has since dropped to fourth, behind England and Italy.
Rummenigge believes that the league’s current dip could jeopardize Bundesliga’s ambitions to become a worldwide brand.
“We must be very careful,” he said. “The U.S. market and Asia are taking note of our slip. It must be in Bundesliga’s interest to attack. And this can’t only be achieved by Bayern Munich, but only all of the league.”
“Bundesliga is a good product, but at the end of the day it’s decisive how we present ourselves internationally. [The World Cup in] Russia was a dark hour. And that’s why Bundesliga must now nail its colours to the mast and deliver a good season in Champions League and Europa League.”