Bayern Munich marketing director Rouven Kasper has taken aim at Germany's Bundesliga clubs, urging them to work harder at promoting themselves globally in the same vein as Bavarian club president Jan-Christian Dreesen.
His comments landed just before the Bavarian giants set off on their tenth summer tour of Asia. Kasper sees a huge gap between German football's international expansion plan and those of the other major leagues.
Speaking to "Sky Sports", he hammered the passivity of Germany's clubs: "After the end of the season, Leipzig went on a tour abroad, and during this summer only Bayern Munich and Dortmund are touring the world, while Paderborn fly to the United States in September. This is far too little! Bundesliga clubs need to think more strategically."
Pointing to English superiority, he went on: "The English travel the world, and that means the German clubs have to be proactive too. You cannot stay at home and then complain about declining revenues. If you do nothing, you will get nothing." German football needs to cross borders, he stressed, to lift its visibility and presence abroad.
The Bayern official also flagged the drop in television broadcast revenues in key markets. "It is unfortunate that the decline in media revenues in countries such as the United States and Japan has become a reality, but this is an additional reason for the league association to work with us to find strategic mechanisms to boost activities, because Bayern Munich cannot travel everywhere on its own," he said.
His remarks come with the Bundesliga's returns from international contracts sitting at 218 million euros for television rights and 302 million euros in total including sponsorships. That figure pales next to the English Premier League, which rakes in around ten times as much, and the Spanish league, which brings in three times it.
Bayern's Asian tour takes them to Jeju Island in South Korea and then Hong Kong until 8 August. They play two friendlies along the way: Jeju SK on 4 August and England's Aston Villa on 7 August.
Kasper signed off with the club's own plans for expansion abroad: "Our target markets are clearly defined. In the two Americas, we have so far focused on North and Central America, but South America is becoming increasingly interesting. In Asia the matter is also clear, and we must turn our attention towards India, Indonesia and Thailand and undertake new ventures there."