The push by the country chiefs to ban unvaccinated football players brings professionals like Joshua Kimmich and their clubs even more distress. In the emotional debate about the role model effect of football in the corona pandemic, the plan of the prime ministers to examine a 2-G rule also for the football industry harbors new explosives. North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst said that the state leaders agreed “very quickly”. "We have to check now whether we can get that implemented," added the CDU politician, however.

The question of the legal security of a regulation according to which professional athletes can be locked out of stadiums and halls because they have neither been vaccinated nor recovered from a corona infection is likely to be the subject of heated negotiations.

For the country bosses it is clear that what the spectators in the stands should also apply to footballers should apply.

And 2-G is mandatory in many arenas at the weekend.

Merkel: "That is what matters now"

The Executive Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) referred to the corona regulations that the Bundestag had just passed on Thursday. "Usually the world of work is 3 G," said the outgoing head of government. According to this, people who have tested negative for the virus are also given access to the workplace, even if they are not vaccinated. For soccer players, this place of work is the stadium on match days. "Now it depends on whether it is the world of work or whether it is the world of leisure," said Merkel.

SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz also left room for possible stricter rules in the countries that could make it uncomfortable for unvaccinated professional athletes. It is true that 3-G rules are provided for working people at events. However, the federal states could possibly handle this differently in critical corona situations. “That is a decision that has to be made on site,” said Scholz. It is a "more far-reaching catalog of action" than before that the new Infection Protection Act offers.

Should the country leaders actually come to a legally secure regulation for 2 G in football professionals, that would come close to compulsory vaccination for the footballers. League boss Christian Seifert had already called for "practicable solutions and implementable concepts" shortly before the political summit. "We have heard enough ideas in the last twelve months," said the DFL managing director at the TV broadcaster Bild.

A debate about vaccination has been raging in football for weeks after Bayern star Kimmich admitted that he was not vaccinated because of his concerns about long-term consequences.

A group of doctors around DFB chief physician Tim Meyer appealed according to "Bild" in a letter: "We urge unvaccinated people inside and outside of football to consider a vaccination and to get serious information about it.

Vaccinations are the key to ending the pandemic quickly and cannot be replaced by any other measure. "

In the 36 clubs in the first and second division, almost ten percent of the players should not be vaccinated.

Professionals in handball, basketball or ice hockey could also be affected by a 2-G rule.

The basketball league gave the vaccination rate among the players at the beginning of the season, however, as 99 percent.