German professional football is delighted to be able to restart from May 15 behind closed doors, but measures its "heavy responsibility", while this decision is met with strong criticism. Just hours after the government gave the green light for a resumption of the Bundesliga on Wednesday, the German Football League (DFL) has announced the date of the first matches: the 26th day will start on Friday 15 May.
“This is good news for the Bundesliga. But it goes hand in hand with a heavy responsibility for the clubs and their staff who must implement medical and organizational procedures with discipline, "immediately declared the president of the DFL Christian Seifert, who had spared no effort to obtain this authorization.
A very rigorous protocol
Clearly, massive contamination of footballers at Covid-19, synonymous with quarantine of the teams and final cessation of the season, would be a disaster. This takeover should indeed allow the 36 first and second division clubs, which support 56,000 people, to recover 300 million euros in TV rights and, for some, avoid the looming bankruptcy.
To convince the political world, Christian Seifert and the League proposed a very complete plan of sanitary measures, based on thousands of tests of the coronavirus for the players and their framing.
Kingsley Coman explains Bayern's return to training via @ 20minutesSport https://t.co/Dt1DeymakQ
- 20 Minutes Sport (@ 20minutesSport) April 10, 2020A rigorous protocol also dictates the measures to be observed in clubs, on the road, in hotels, and codifies everyone's behavior before, during and after matches (players, staffs, referees, media, staff, etc.).
"What is proposed makes sense," said the president of the German Olympic Committee (DOSB) Alfons Hörmann. “But with a big question mark: will the managers succeed in implementing everything in an absolutely rigorous and professional manner? "
"Fatal signal"
Several players have recognized that their behavior would be decisive: "It is a huge responsibility for us, of which we must be fully aware," said Bayern Munich captain Manuel Neuer: "We were the darlings of an entire nation when we became world champions at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro on July 13, 2014. Now we wear a different jersey: that of social models. "
Despite its precision, the DFL health plan did not convince everyone. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) health expert Karl Lauterbach denounced "a fatal signal" sent by the government of Angela Merkel and by the Länder (regional states). "It is not a sporting decision, but only a commercial one, so as not to lose sponsorship contracts," he ranted.
"Perverse"
On Wednesday, the city-state of Bremen was the only one to say publicly that it had pleaded against a resumption in May, believing that the conditions were not yet met. "The decision taken does not change our position, we believe it is a wrong decision," said Bremen's regional interior minister Ulrich Mäurer (also SPD), quoted by the daily on Thursday Bild.
Ulrich Mäurer raised the objections which are also the nightmares of the DFL: “And what will happen when an entire team will have to leave in quarantine? And what will happen if, for the Dortmund-Schalke match for example (a derby which usually unleashes passions,), 5,000 supporters gather in front of the stadium? "
In the sports world outside of football, some hostile voices are also raised. "The state is degrading the health of the population for football, it's perverse," had won Wednesday the 2017 world champion of the javelin Johannes Vetter. As for the European diving champion Tina Punzel, she finds it "regrettable that thousands of tests (of coronavirus) are used" for football, taking up an argument repeatedly heard in recent days in Germany.
Sport
Coronavirus: Dortmund fans donate more than 70,000 euros to bars and restaurants in the city
- Bundesliga
- Covid 19
- Coronavirus
- Soccer
- Sport