Germany football chief Oliver Bierhoff admits they made "many mistakes" over Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil's retirement.

Ozil quit the national team after the World Cup following a controversial media appearance before the tournament with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Bierhoff told Die Welt: "It went wrong and I'm very sorry, there were a lot of mistakes, also on my part.

"Until today, nobody had a convincing idea of how we could have handled his situation in the national team in a different way.

"Of course I would have wished Mesut an exit in another way, I can only repeat that, in the end, all of us gave an image that was not good."