HARGREAVES FINED

Owen Hargreaves's publicly expressed desire to leave Bayern Munich for Manchester United has proved expensive for the England international after it emerged the Bundesliga champions had fined him a week's wages.

Bayern are incensed that Hargreaves reputedly had face-to-face talks with Sir Alex Ferguson at United's training ground and have reminded him that, if true, he is breaching the terms of his £18,000-per-week contract. According to reports in Germany, the club's general manager, Uli Hoeness, rounded on Hargreaves in front of the other players. "I am incredibly disappointed in you," he reportedly said. "You are prostituting yourself to Manchester United."

Hargreaves yesterday abandoned the idea of a press conference after it was made clear he was risking a backlash from Bayern's fans should the transfer fail to go through. He had been expected to re-iterate his plans to move to Old Trafford.