Football
Stephan Uersfeld, Germany correspondent 9y

Uli Hoeness 'warns Bayern Munich bid for Marco Reus could harm Bundesliga'

Former Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness has warned the German champions they risk destroying the Bundesliga's competitive nature if they target Borussia Dortmund star Marco Reus, Sport Bild has reported.

The spotlight is on the meeting between the 2013 Champions League finalists at the Allianz Arena on Saturday, with a 14-point gap between them after only nine matches following BVB's struggles.

This year, a war of words has broken out between the clubs in the battle for Germany international Reus.

The Dortmund attacker is under contract until 2017 but has a 25 million-euro release clause which could be triggered next summer.

Contract talks between Dortmund and Reus are on hold, and on Wednesday Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge renewed his interest in the player in a Sport Bild cover story.

Reus has declined to comment further on the speculation, saying: "I don't want to cause any unrest at Dortmund," while sporting director Michael Zorc told Bild: "We don't actually take note of [Rummenigge's] comments any more. He keeps repeating himself."

Amid talk of a possible Reus transfer, Hoeness has reportedly warned Bayern to think about the situation.

Recently, Hoeness -- currently imprisoned for tax evasion -- met Bayern's honorary president Franz Beckenbauer, Rummenigge and Schalke chief Clemens Tonnies during day leave from Landsberg prison.

"Consider it carefully. Do you really want to win the title by Christmas?" he said in quotes reported by Sport Bild.

After back-to-back championships for Dortmund in 2011 and 2012, Bayern raced to the last two league titles, which they won in April and March respectively. They signed Dortmund duo Mario Gotze and Robert Lewandowski in the last two summer transfer windows.

Poland international Lewandowski will take on his former club for the first time in the Bundesliga on Saturday, but refused to speak about rumours of a Bayern bid for Reus.

"He is a great player with whom I got along really well on and off the pitch," he told Sport Bild. "But I won't say more about it, otherwise there'd be too much speculation and I might into trouble with my former colleagues."

Despite a near fall-out in the summer of 2013 -- when Dortmund did not allow Lewandowski to leave -- the striker had an outstanding final season for the club, and told the paper he still followed them.

"The first thing I want to find out after the final whistle is the result of their match, and it's not like I am happy about a BVB defeat," he added.

"The biggest mistake [on Saturday] would be to underestimate them."

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