Okay, Karen: Bayer Leverkusen asks to speak with the manager in complaint over Bayern Munich

Per a new report from Sport Bild (via Az), Bayer Leverkusen has filed an official complaint to the DFB over the rescheduling of Bayern Munich’s second round DFB-Pokal match against 2. Liga side Holstein Kiel.

Leverkusen feels that the rescheduling sets an unfair precedent to the other clubs in the Bundesliga that are also still competing across three fronts, like themselves, Borussia Monchengladbach, Borussia Dortmund, TSG Hoffenheim, and RB Leipzig.

Bayern was originally scheduled to take on Holstein Kiel on December 23rd, but they were able to have it rescheduled to January 13th, 2021 after submitting an official request to the DFB. This marks the second time in the competition that Bayern has had a match date moved as they rescheduled their first-round match against FC Düren due to fixture congestion at the time in the Bundesliga, Champions League, and UEFA Supercup.

Despite Bayern’s competition in the first round being of a lesser caliber, it’s next to impossible to expect the players to be able to play so many games in such a short period of time, not to mention all of the travelling involved as well as coronavirus infections. This time around, with the rescheduling of the Holstein Kiel match, that same amount of fixture congestion was the main issue as well as all of the Bayern players that were recently away on international duty.

Leverkusen possibly felt that Bayern was getting the royal treatment from the DFB, but they’ve also submitted an official request to have their second round Pokal match against Eintracht Frankfurt rescheduled. Frankfurt would agree to a postponement as long as it’s approved by the DFB. Leverkusen plays Bayern on December 19th, just four days before they would be playing Frankfurt in the DFB-Pokal. They feel that Bayern has the unfair advantage in this because they don’t have to worry about their second round Pokal match until after the brief winter break while Peter Bosz will be forced to make rotations between the Bayern and Frankfurt match if the Frankfurt match doesn’t get postponed.

Leverkusen will have been playing just as many matches as Bayern by that point because they are also in the Europa League playing on Thursdays and are on the verge of advancing to the round of 32.

Photo by MARTIN MEISSNER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Leverkusen’s front office is confident the DFB will approve the rescheduling of the match against Frankfurt. They believe that it would reflect the governing body treating every team and their players equally, without giving anyone any sort of clear-cut advantage or disadvantage.