Bundesliga: KH Rummenigge proposes to extend preseason training to promote summer tours

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, CEO of Bayern Munich (Bundesliga), proposed to delay the beginning date of the German Bundesliga in order to extend the summer abroad tours of German clubs to maximise their commercial and international media revenues, he said in an interview with German newspaper Kicker on the 27/01/2014.

The Bundesliga started on the 09/08/2013 in 2013-14 and will begin on the 22/08/2014 in 2014-15. "The summer preparation will be too short," said Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, referring to the impact of the 2014 World Cup, held in Brazil from 12/06 to 13/07/2014. Despite this, Bayern Munich will participate in the 2014 MLS All-Star Game (Major League Soccer) in Portland (Oregon, USA) on the 06/08/2014. "If we do not go, we’ll miss the opportunity to recruit new supporters for all of the Bundesliga," said the CEO of the Bavarian club.

"I think we should slightly modify the schedule in order to not start the Bundesliga in mid-August," said Rummenigge who is also president of the ECA (European Club Association), and takes as an example the Premier League and La Liga, two…