Guardiola rages at leaky ship

The Bavarian club's victory over the team expected to be their main rivals to this season's Bundesliga crown could well be defining, given that leaders Bayern now have a seven-point gap over third-placed Dortmund. However, Guardiola had little time to enjoy Saturday's crucial win, reportedly raging at his players post-match after details on his approach to the Dortmund encounter had been leaked to the press.

"Whoever it is, heads will roll ..." Guardiola told his players after the match, according to the German daily Bild. "He will never play for me again."

Bayern Chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge confirmed that the club was investigating the link: "We won't be turning to the NSA [the US National Security Agency] to find out who it is, but I would advise the person concerned to immediately stop this performance," Rummenigge said.

"Otherwise he will have a serious problem, not only with Pep Guardiola, but with the whole club."

The investigation comes as a distraction ahead of Bayern's Champions League trip to CSKA Moscow on Wednesday, and the incident is reminiscent of the one that shook the German camp at the 2012 European Championships.

Then, Die Mannschaft's starting XI for their quarterfinal win over Greece was leaked to Bild within an hour of head coach Joachim Löw telling his squad. At the time, Germany captain Philipp Lahm said it was "a disgrace" that the information had been leaked.

"The one with the problem is the guy who has done this because he is damaging the hopes of the entire nation," Lahm said of the culprit, who was never publicly identified.

In April of the same year, four players of English club Preston North End informed their counterparts on Sheffield Wednesday of team news a day before the two squads met in League One.

The third-tier club handled the matter behind closed doors, refusing to name the players at fault and ruling out any malicious intent behind the leak.

ph/mkg (AFP, dpa)