Mr Rorsted, the European Football Championship starts in a little over two weeks.

Are you excited yet?

Sven Astheimer

Editor responsible for corporate reporting.

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    Rudiger Koehn

    Business correspondent based in Munich.

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      Yes, and how.

      Not just as a sports fan and football enthusiast.

      We are returning to a certain normalcy.

      It's not just the games, football stadiums with spectators or the appearance of the German national team.

      It is just as important to me that this hopefully gives amateur sport a permanent place in our everyday life.

      That will raise the mood in the country enormously.

      Do you see the EM as a turning point for the better?

      The EM is the first big event that will excite football fans.

      We already got a foretaste in the last Bundesliga match between Union Berlin and RB Leipzig, when thousands of spectators attended the Alte Försterei.

      People come together, wear their fan jerseys - even if we haven't been able to sell as many for the European Championship as usual.

      I am convinced that after such a long period of abstinence the enthusiasm and passion will be greater than before Corona.

      How did you experience football without an audience?

      I never went to the stadium once.

      That means something, because I prefer to watch games live.

      Everything that stands for football was missing: fun, emotions, mood, disappointment, victory, defeat, all the trappings - above all, the unifying elements.

      But will you be back in the stadium from mid-June?

      I'm going to watch the German team's first three games in Munich.

      There, some spectators in the arena will be able to cheer for the hygiene concept that has been developed.

      Finally another experience.

      The emptiness in the football stadiums, in which a few people with face masks lost each other, has been a symbol of populism and the political dilemma for me.

      Ten thousand people could have sat in the Allianz Arena and watched the games from a great distance without any problems.

      After all, these people also travel by bus or subway.

      And the risk of getting infected in the supermarket is much greater.

      Do you think it's okay for professionals to get privileges while millions of amateur athletes are not allowed to train properly?

      Sport is not a privilege.

      It is a basic right.

      That must not be mixed up.

      Political failure is not made better by punishing all people with harsh measures.

      Children, adolescents, adults must finally be able to play football again and generally be able to do sports.

      That is much more important than 15,000 spectators in a football stadium.

      We have seen that outdoor activities hardly involve any risks, but that they create a balance, which is important right now.

      Sport should have been allowed long ago.

      Politicians have to put up with the accusation.

      The German Football Association (DFB), your advertising partner, recently provided entertainment.

      How harmful was the leadership theater around the now resigned President Fritz Keller?

      That didn't throw a good light on the association.

      Of course we don't watch the development with pleasure.

      In the end, we need a self-contained DFB with a good product - and that is a good national team.

      What do you want as the most important sponsor?

      We are partners, but we don't sit at the committees' table and make management decisions, whether it's the DFB, FC Bayern Munich or Manchester United.

      But her voice has weight.

      Don't you pick up the phone when things get so chaotic and your expensive product is damaged?

      We called ...

      ... and who talked to?