Advantage Pitso Mosimane & Al Ahly after Bayern Munich’s flight delayed

Bayern Munich’s Club World Cup mission got off to a rocky start with their take-off from Berlin on a direct flight to Qatar delayed seven hours overnight on Friday.

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After beating Hertha Berlin 1-0, the team made their way to the airport and had boarded their plane expecting to arrive in Doha six-and-a-half hours later.

But after heavy snow in the German capital the plane’s de-icing took longer than expected and air traffic control refused permission for take-off due to a 00:00-07:00 ban on flights.

Bayern had to disembark the Qatar Airlines plane which had been due to leave at 23:15, but in the end was only given the all-clear for departure one minute before the flight curfew began.

The German champions, who have a semi-final against Egypt’s Al-Ahly on Monday, were forced to remain at the airport overnight, eventually leaving a few minutes before 07:00, but this time with a stopover in Munich to change airline crew.

“We had the impression that the competent authorities didn’t care about us,” an irate Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Bayern’s chairperson, told Bild.

“Those in charge (at the airport) don’t have an inkling of what they’ve done to our team.”

After Monday’s semi-final against Egypt’s Al-Ahly and either the final or third-place playoff on Thursday, Bayern are back home on Bundesliga duty against Arminia Bielefeld on Monday week.

One consolation for Bayern Munich: they finally took off buoyed by five successive wins which left them 10 points clear of second-placed RB Leipzig, who have a game in hand away to crisis-hit Schalke later on Saturday.