Get some popcorn and pull up a chair.

This is very interesting.

On the one hand, Bayern's reaction seems completely over the top. On the other, one wonders why UEFA's release doesn't mention Boksic, who is allegedly the source of the rumour.

And the Bayern-UEFA tiff gets even worse:

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?slug=a...ich-montypython

Disgraceful!

From the link:

Obviously UEFA has no sense of humor! :D

I think that is a very clever sign.

As for the criminal complaint, ursus is right, it could become an interesting fight. And very curious that Boksic's name was not mentioned in UEFA's press reply. Looks like he is getting thrown under the proverbial bus by UEFA.

Bayern are still upset by Robben's injury with Holland and they are trying to obtain some compensation from them for his first half of the season absence. So they are particularly testy now, still their reaction does seem over top in this matter. I guess they are just playing hardball with UEFA because these are serious charges, even if shown to be false, and Bayern are looking to protect their reputation.

I wonder if UEFA instead would force the Bayern fans to rewrite it in correct Latin grammar several hundred times! :o

It does sound as if UEFA are ready to make Boksic be the sacrificial lamb in all of this? Why else leave his name out of their press release?

Now UEFA are taking a more conciliatory stance,

UEFA opens internal probe into Bayern allegations

As mentioned yesterday, pull up a chair and watch this spectacle.

As a casual observer of this thread, my comment is: how do we know Bayern's reaction is over the top when we are not even sure what the specific alledged slanderous comments were?
In other words, maybe their reaction is perfectly understandable and reasonable, if the comments were blatantly slanderous.
Just an uninformed observation...... ;)

John, thanks for bringing me back to the thread.

As you note, at the time of the original post, the Stern article hadn't been released. It hit the newsstands yesterday, and here is an accurate precis from a German-speaking poster on another board (including a link to the internet abstract):

What I hadn't realized at the time of my original post was that defamation can be a criminal offense in Germany (that isn't the case in most US states). Given that fact, Bayern do indeed to be well within their rights to bring the matter to the attention of the public prosecutors (though I have my doubts as to whether they are going to bring a charge).

Boksic either has a lot of dirt on many people or is an inherent liar. Seems as if the FIFA internal report viewed him as the latter. So why then was he on UEFA's payroll?

Bayern are taking a hardline stance on this for reason, they need to protect their reputation after these allegations were printed. So often the mere existence of the allegations, even if without mrit, is enough to cause damage. So I understand why Hoeness is taking the hardline stance.

More on Boksic and Limacher,

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writ...nich/index.html

Bayern may have cause to sue.

Was just going to post that.

It's an incredible story. Bayern and Koln are completely right to sue and UEFA have to be very worried about what Boksic may have done while he had access to all of their confidential monitoring apparatus.

Industrial espionage! The bookmakers, the infamous Sapina brothers, had their own plant inside UEFA! It is straight out of a spy novel. But ursus is on to something, Bayern and Koln do seem to have grounds to sue and UEFA should be very concerned tat their security apparatus in combating match fixing has been compromised.

That is some story. Shows the cleverness though of these betting groups, here they are setting up people inside UEFA to try and learn their methods to detect match rigging. Wha is fascinating is how FIFA sniffed out how Boksic was unreliable but UEFA did not.

This story should have some legs.