Bayern Munich general manager Uli Hoeness has slammed Barcelona president Joan Gaspart for starting talks with defender Samuel Kuffour, who has 18 months to run on his contact with the Bundesliga champions. "He better keep his hands off our players," Hoeness blasted, before fining Kuffour ?3,100.
Kuffour missed Bayern's first win in four Bundesliga games – a 2-0 victory over Energie Cottbus – at the weekend, but he was seen in Munich's top Italian restaurant Eboli with Barcelona director and former Germany midfielder Bernd Schuster.
"That is not the way to do things. We've fined him ?3,100 so that he'll return to his senses and we will also send a written complaint to Barcelona president Gaspart. He better keep his fingers off our players," general manager Uli Hoeness blasted.
Kuffour is contracted to Bayern until 2003, and Fifa regulations demand that clubs are only allowed to start negotiations with players who have less than half a year left on their contract.
According to reports in the German press, Barcelona are willing to offer Kuffour a deal that would double his annual salary to ?1.3 million. The Catalan giants are also prepared to pay Bayern ?11 million for the 24-year-old.
Barcelona tabled an official offer for the powerful defender in January, which the German champions rejected. "Barcelona offered us over ?9 million for Kuffour, but we didn't even think about it for five seconds," Bayern vice-president Karl-Heinz Rumenigge said.
But Kuffour himself insisted he was keen on a move to Spain. "Bayern told me from the very beginning about Barcelona's interest in signing me and I have asked them to think about it carefully and consider the possibility," he said in January.
"I am very happy in Munich but I have a special relationship with Barcelona. I have a lot of good memories from the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992."
Kuffour joined Bayern's youth team when he turned 17 in 1993. Under respected amateur coach Hermann Gerland, Kuffour made his first appearance in Bayern's reserve team and followed that with his debut in the Bundesliga.
He then played 12 games for Gerland's new club Nuremberg, but was unable to help them avoid relegation before rejoining Bayern.
Bayern came under fire on Monday from former coach Jupp Heynckes for failing to buy young players during the winter transfer period.
