Cologne (Germany) (AFP)
One of the obstacles to the resumption of the Bundesliga is removed: no other case of contamination with the coronavirus was detected at FC Cologne, three members of which had tested positive on Friday and placed in the fortnight.
The contamination of two players (midfielder Niklas Hauptmann and defender Ismail Jakobs) and a physical trainer discovered on Friday had threw a chill on plans to take over the Bundesliga, which hopes to be able to restart in mid-May, if the power politician gives the green light, in principle Wednesday.
Tests on the entire Cologne workforce on Sunday revealed no new positive cases, the club said on Monday. In camera training was scheduled for the afternoon.
According to the protocol presented by the German League (DFL) to organize the resumption of the championship, all players must be tested regularly. A player must have presented two consecutive negative tests to be allowed to train and participate in a match.
The Bundesliga is the most advanced championship in view of a resumption in camera of competitions, completely stopped since March 13 due to the coronavirus. "I find the schedule proposed by the German Football League plausible and I support a restart in May," German Interior and Sports Minister Horst Seehofer told the daily Bild published on Sunday.
Germany officially has 163,175 cases of COVID-19 for a total of 6,692 deaths, which is much less than Italy, Spain, France and Great Britain, the other major championship countries.
© 2020 AFP