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Bayern Munich have denied claims the club threatened to exclude Mario Gotze from their Champions League squad if he did not look to leave the Bundesliga champions, with CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge branding the reports "fiction." Gotze, 24, is set to enter the final year of his contract at Bayern and has vowed to fight for his place despite being told by the club that his playing time will be limited under new coach Carlo Ancelotti. The ex-Borussia Dortmund player had seemed certain to leave the Allianz Arena and was strongly linked with a move to join former boss Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool or a return to the Westfalenstadion. But after switching agents late last month, he announced his intention to stay on -- a U-turn which is said to have irritated Bayern and their incoming coach Carlo Ancelotti, who said: "I've spoken to Mario on the phone. He's aware of my opinion." Since then, a number of German publications, including broadsheet Suddeutsche Zeitung, claimed Bayern told Gotze to either leave the club or face a season without Champions League football. On Wednesday, Bayern strongly rejected the reports in a statement on the club's official website. "FC Bayern Munich has demanded that various media sources cease and desist from reporting false claims," the statement read. Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge added: "This is complete fiction. It remains the case that we will resolutely defend ourselves against all false or even malicious reporting using all legal means available to us." In February 2016, Bayern made Sport Bild sign a cease-and-desist letter following the publication's claims that midfielder Arturo Vidal had left the club's winter training camp in Qatar on several occasions. Previously, in April 2014, Bayern revoked accreditation for the Champions League quarterfinal second-leg tie for both The Sun and the Daily Mirror in response to the papers' headlines following then-Munich player Bastian Schweinsteiger's goal and red card in the first-leg of the tie. Bayern later accepted an apology from The Sun and the newspaper was subsequently allowed to send reporters to the Allianz Arena.
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