Bayern Munich Slam 'Degrading, Slanderous' Reporting in Fiery Press Conference

Bayern Munich officials took several shots at the German media for "degrading, slanderous" reporting in a fiery press conference on Friday following the team's poor start to the 2018-19 Bundesliga campaign.

Club CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was among the men who faced the press and said the German champions are fed up, per the Mirror's James Whaling:

"It’s an important day for FC Bayern because we want to tell you that we will not put up with it anymore.

"We will not let this degrading, slanderous reporting as of today. We will protect our players, our coach and the club.

"We are not looking for the blame on the media. If you do not play well, you deserve no praise. But we want a report of a factual nature."

Bayern announced the surprise press conference earlier this week, leading to speculation there could be news about embattled manager Niko Kovac.

Instead, club officials ranted about the media. Sportswriter Archie Rhind-Tutt gave a short summary of what happened:

President Uli Hoeness provided some of the most remarkable comments and was called out for some of his remarks about Mesut Ozil at one point:

Per Sport Bild (h/t Mirror's Mark Jones), Hoeness previously said Ozil had "been playing s--t for years" after the Arsenal midfielder announced he wouldn't play for the German national team again following the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

He somewhat walked back those comments on Friday, per Goal's Robin Bairner: "I should not have said s--t, but crap. My opinion of Mesut is clear: I wanted to make a point of diverting the conversation back towards sport. I wanted to divert it away from racism and integration."

Per Whaling, Rummenigge appeared to take issue with the criticism of Manuel Neuer after his poor showing in Germany's 3-0 loss against the Netherlands. Both also defended the club's transfer policy this summer.

The press conference was not well received on social media:

Bayern sit in sixth place in the Bundesliga standings and have failed to win any of their last four matches across all competitions. Their last outing was a 3-0 loss at the hands of Borussia Monchengladbach.

The German champions will visit Wolfsburg on Saturday.