Bayern out to down Mainz to stay on top

Bayern Munich host Mainz on Saturday looking for their third Bundesliga win of the season after club president Uli Hoeness dismissed champions Dortmund as just a "regional" team.

Bayern are set to start new signing Javier Martinez, who cost them a German league record 40 million euros from Athletic Bilbao a fortnight ago, alongside Germany's Bastian Schweinsteiger, in midfield against Mainz. Dortmund, who have won the German league title for the last two seasons, host Bayer Leverkusen with German Chancellor Angela Merkel expected to be in the crowd, but Hoeness has upped the ante with some trash talking.

"Dortmund is a relatively regional thing. Bayern is a global player," Hoeness told a digital trade fair in Cologne.

"(Dortmund) will never, never, never catch up to our enormous success over the last 30 years.

"They will have to win the German title ten times in a row to perhaps be more popular." While Bayern have won away at Greuther Fuerth and trounced Stuttgart in Munich in their opening games, Dortmund opened their bid for a third consecutive league crown with a narrow win over Bremen and a draw at Nuremberg. AFP