Bayern's chairman, the former international centre forward Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, told the Guardian he rejects complaints that Bayern's playing strength and huge wealth is making the Bundesliga uncompetitive, arguing instead the club's success and profile should be considered a great asset to German football.

While criticising the tradeable ownership of the Premier League, in which England's top clubs have been bought by US investors, Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, Rummenigge said Bayern, still 82% owned by the club's 225,000 fan-members, admire and will seek to emulate the English game's profile and earnings overseas.

Bayern will open an office in New York "within weeks", Rummenigge said and prepare for a summer of playing tours. Another office will be set up in the new year in China where, Bayern, like Premier League clubs, anticipate huge commercial opportunities.

"The Bundesliga is today growing and doing well but the Premier League by far is still number one in the world," Rummenigge said. "The English clubs are doing a fantastic job internationally and we have to follow. Then, when we start this initiative, the other Bundesliga clubs have to follow the example of Bayern."

Pointing to the gap between the Premier League's international TV deals from 2013-16, which at £2.3bn is more than 10 times that of the Bundesliga's current €70m a year, Rummenigge said: "You see the Bundesliga, and Bayern Munich as the locomotive of the Bundesliga, has to do much more."

This has become Bayern Munich's response to the growing observation that the club, with its 71,000-capacity Allianz Arena, lucrative sponsorships, European playing success and propensity still to sign their Bundesliga rivals' best players, have become too overwhelmingly strong for the German league. Already this season they are four points ahead of second-placed Bayer Leverkusen and the club's former coach, Felix Magath, recently argued that the Bundesliga is "pre-awarded to Bayern".

To the suggestion from Eintracht Frankfurt's coach, Heribert Bruchhagen, that the German clubs playing in the Champions League should share their money around the Bundesliga, Rummenigge argued Bayern's strength should not be clipped but built upon.

"People are looking at us being too strong in the Bundesliga at national level," Rummenigge said, "but we are looking at the European and international level and we see we have to further and, at the end, it will help the Bundesliga."

Bayern's clean sweep of European Champions League, Bundesliga, German Cup and Super Cup and a relentless commercial operation, despite 16,000 season tickets offered to members at only €150, €7.50 per domestic match, produced a record income in 2012-13. Bayern's total, €433m, was almost €130m more than the club's nearest rivals in the Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund, who made €305m, and Bayern's signing from Dortmund of Mario Götze, leaked just before the Wembley Champions League final between the two clubs, has reinforced the growing divide. Bayern's income was similar to the £363m record turnover of Manchester United, whose international earnings, principally from sponsorships, Bayern will now seek to emulate.

Bayern earned €150m from matchday income, including their winning run in the Champions League, £102m from sponsorship, with shirt sponsor T-Mobile omnipresent at the Allianz Arena, and €44m from domestic TV rights. Champions League earnings were €63m, the source of Bruchhagen's complaint that Bayern are now operating on another financial planet from the other Bundesliga clubs.

Despite German football's success in club and national team competitions and a widespread admiration for the Bundesliga's quality and atmosphere, the league has been slow to grow internationally. Christian Seifert, the Bundesliga chief executive, told the Guardian a "lack of management attention" had led to the Bundesliga not even selling TV rights internationally until 2005. "This was a very underdeveloped area," Seifert said.

Pep Guardiola, the coach whose signing was such a coup for Bayern, is central to the plans to take the club's appeal worldwide and so grow the Bundesliga's popularity and international income. "He gives us a big image," Rummenigge said of Guardiola. "In these plans for the new international division, Pep is playing a main role. He is probably the most popular, the most important coach in the world."

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/dec/09/bayern-munich-bundesliga-premier-league