TNT Sports
Hitzfeld sacked
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Published 18/05/2004 at 16:20 GMT+1
Bayern Munich have sacked coach Ottmar Hitzfeld after a disappointing season which saw the Bavarian giants relinquish their Bundesliga title. Club manager Uli Hoeness told Hitzfeld on Monday night the embarrassing 3-1 home defeat to Werder Bremen two week
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Speculation Hitzfeld - who completed a domestic double last season - would be replaced had been rife since it was clear Werder would take the title.
But the humiliation suffered at the hands of the new champions was too much for Hoeness to bear, deciding Hitzfeld had to go immediately rather than wait till his current deal expired in June 2005 as had been earlier agreed.
"This match changed the world. After this match I knew that we could not go through this again for another season. After this match, the scales dropped from my eyes," said Hoeness,
Bayern failed to convince in the Champions League, scraping through the group phase before being knocked out by Real Madrid, and risk having to qualify for next season's competition if they fail to win in Saturday's season finale against Freiburg.
Bayern's rivals for direct qualification for Europe's elite club competition are VfB Stuttgart - currently a point behind the Munich club - coached, ironically, by the man hotly-tipped to be Hitzfeld's successor, Felix Magath.
Hoeness refused to be drawn into the debate, but promised a man was being lined up: "We can't talk about Magath at the moment, but after the last round of matches, we will tell you who will be the next man on the bench."
Hitzfeld, 55, took over at Bayern in 1998, steering the side to a hat-trick of domestic league titles between 1999 and 2001 - including a domestic double in 2000 and a Bundesliga-Champions League double in 2001 - making him the most successful German coach in history.
The former Borussia Dortmund boss is expected to receive a 4.5 million euro payoff for the final year of his contract.
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