Berlin (AFP)

The resumption of the football championship is becoming clearer in Germany: the Minister of the Interior said he was in favor of restarting the Bundesliga which should thus become the first major European championship to take the plunge, despite players tested positive for the coronavirus.

"I find the schedule proposed by the German Football League plausible and I support a restart in May" of the Bundesliga, German Interior and Sports Minister Horst Seehofer told the daily Bild published on Sunday.

The opinion of Mr. Seehofer, who plays a key role in the government on this issue given the two portfolios for which he is responsible, is decisive.

And it comes just three days from a summit meeting scheduled for Wednesday of the federal government and regional presidents to decide definitively on the subject.

- Resumption by the end of May -

A green light for matches behind closed doors now appears all the more likely since the presidents of regions are already in favor.

The German League (DFL) is pleading for a resumption of matches without spectators by the end of May.

The Minister of the Interior and Sports, however, stressed that teams and players should meet several conditions.

"If there is a case of corona within a team or its management, the club as a whole, and possibly also the team against which it played last, will have to put itself for two weeks in quarantine" said the minister.

"There will therefore continue to be risks for the calendar of meetings and for the classification" in the event of contamination, he added.

Likewise, it refused that the clubs have a privileged access compared to the rest of the population to the tests, whereas the clubs suggested a regular screening of their players.

Germany is comparatively one of the large European countries which has fared so far best in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

It has a fairly high number of identified cases, which stood at 162,496 on Sunday. But that of deaths remains him, at 6.649, lower than most of the other large European countries, which also host the main football championships, such as England, Spain, Italy or France.

- Fear of players -

In France, the League even pronounced Thursday the final end of the season and crowned the Paris SG champion.

In Italy, the European country hardest hit by the Covid-19 disease, the government has cooled Serie A clubs by announcing that collective training could not resume before May 18. This risks postponing the date for the resumption of the competition that has been privileged until then by the authorities. The objective of a recovery in early June has become untenable.

In Spain, no date for resumption of competition has been set for the hour. May 4 or 11 were mentioned for the return to collective training.

In England, the Premier League is trying to build a "Restart" project (restart) which aims to return to competition on June 8, but in camera and in a limited number of stadiums, according to several media.

In Germany, on the other hand, training has already resumed. But the risk remains.

Three members of FC Cologne, the first division club, tested positive for the new coronavirus this week and placed in the "fortnight". And in this context, the prospect of an upcoming resumption of the championship also raises fears.

Birger Verstraete, Belgian player from Cologne whose partner suffers from heart problems, judged Saturday "strange" that his club did not put, as Mr. Seehofer also suggests in his interview with Bild, all players quarantine after these tests, in an interview with the Flemish television channel VTM.

"It is not up to me to decide what to do in the Bundesliga but I can say that I have no head in football" at the moment, he added "," the health of my family, my partner is the priority. "

© 2020 AFP