Ribery gives Bayern ultimatum

Franck Ribery has told Bayern Munich that he will only sign a new contract at the Allianz Arena if the Bundesliga club show greater ambition.

Ribery has spoken out after president Uli Hoeness claimed earlier in the week that the France star would be sold next summer rather than be allowed to leave on a free transfer when his contract expires in 2011.

Ribery was widely expected to leave Bayern for either Real Madrid or Chelsea in the last transfer window.

"Of course signing a new contract with Bayern is a possibility but I want to win the Champions League," he declared.

"At the moment, the team is not at the level necessary to compete with Barcelona, Real Madrid, Arsenal, or Inter. But fortunately it is early and in football anything can happen."

Meanwhile, former Bayern coach Jurgen Klinsmann cannot understand how president Hoeness is still at the club.

Klinsmann believes Hoeness should have been sacked at the same time as he was in April after a disappointing ten-month spell in charge at the Allianz Arena.

Hoeness, who earlier this month became the club's chairman after three decades as their general manager, was as accountable for the team's poor results as he was, insists Klinsmann.

"When you have a manager on the bench who has a strong influence on the team, who talks to the players and comes with you into your training camps, and then there is a situation where things are not successful, then both should really say goodbye," he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.