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Bayern Munich are upset with the DFB over a Mercedes-Benz ad featuring members of the German national team. In fact, they’re so upset that they’ve asked the DFL to file an official complaint with the DFB over the ad.
What’s the issue? The ad features both Jerome Boateng and Joshua Kimmich.
Due to Bayern’s sponsorship deal with Audi — and the fact that Audi owns 8.33% of the club’s shares — they have an agreement with the DFB about only one player appearing in a German national team ad featuring a rival sponsor.
Here’s the image in question:
Bayern have filed a complaint to the DFB after their sponsor Mercedes featured 2 Bayern players (Boateng & kimmich) on their 'Best NeVer Rest' advert. The initial agreement was that only one Bayern nplayer is allowed to feature as the club has its own car sponsor Audi [SportBild] pic.twitter.com/G7sSwdZyK4
— Bayern & Germany (@iMiaSanMia) July 11, 2018
The images of Boateng and Kimmich were used after the DFB asked sponsors to downplay the use of Mesut Ozil and Ilkay Gundagon in advertisements following their controversial appearance with Turkey’s autocratic leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Ozil was moved to the background of the image while Toni Kroos was moved to the forefront, according to SportBild.
Bayern await a response from the DFB.