Bayern Munich will play Holland in a friendly next year to compensate the German champions for losing Arjen Robben to an injury aggravated during the World Cup in South Africa. The game will be played at Bayern’s Allianz Arena on May 22, 2012
The Dutch football association (KNVB) and Bayern had been embroiled in a war of words for many months over Robben, with both sides pointing the finger of blame at the other for the former Chelsea and Real Madrid winger’s injury problems.
“We are happy to finally end this issue,” said Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. “It is good for the football family to have reached a fair and satisfactory solution.”
Robben was Bayern’s star player last season, helping them to Bundesliga and German Cup glory and also playing a big part in their progress to the Champions League final, which they lost to Inter Milan.
But he has been missing for much of the current season after being diagnosed with a torn thigh muscle in pre-season. Bayern claimed that the injury was a result of Robben coming back to play for the Netherlands too soon at the World Cup, having been injured in a warm-up game. Robben missed the Netherlands opening two games in South Africa, but went on to play the next five as Holland reached the World Cup Final.
The injury flared up again following Robben’s return to pre-season training after the World Cup, and Bayern doctor Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt claimed the original injury from June was never correctly treated.
Bayern had wanted the KNVB to take over payment of the player’s wages until he was fit to play again, but after months of arguing a deal has finally been reached.
“We have accepted that no consensus has emerged regarding the fundamentals of the discussion so the best course of action was to put aside our differences and seek a solution acceptable to both sides,” KNVB chief executive Bert van Oostveen said. “This has now happened. We’re satisfied with the outcome, and we’re now looking forward to a fantastic friendly match in Munich.”
Basically it sounds like Holland said, yes we knew Robben was injured, but we needed him in order to reach the World Cup Final so we played him regardless of the consequences to Bayern. Not the first time a national team has done this and it will not be the last.
