After a month and a half of stoppage and with a truncated preparation, the German football championship is relaunched on Saturday at 3.30pm. But this ultra-publicized recovery will be under high health surveillance due to the coronavirus crisis, which is still raging in the country, even if its spread is lower than elsewhere in Europe. "The whole world is now looking to us," said Bayern Munich coach Hansi Flick. Europe 1 answers five questions about a long-awaited but high-risk recovery.
Why is the Bundesliga taking over so early?
Ligue 1 has stopped permanently, the Spanish Liga, the English Premier League and Italian Serie A are still pending. The Bundesliga is, for the moment, the only major European championship to resume since the interruption in March. But why do players find the field so early? The resumption of matches in the first and second divisions has been deemed "acceptable" by the government to "limit the economic damage".
The German Football League (DFL) has long advocated for this recovery, which is vital for the economic survival of a sector which employs 56,000 people in Germany. The broadcasting of the meetings will in particular allow clubs to collect 300 million euros in TV rights.
The economy, but also the sportsman: "It is important that the season is decided on the ground, and not on the green carpet" as in France for example, said the boss of Bayern Munich Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
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Will the health protocol be draconian?
The backbone of the German Football League (DFL) plan for recovery is the massive testing of players and their coaching, at least twice a week and on the eve of each match. But also the immediate sidelining within clubs of anyone declared positive. The decision to quarantine the rest of the team does not depend on the clubs, but on the local health authorities.
For the players, it will be necessary to comply with the requirements of the health protocol, which will completely disrupt the routines on match days: respecting distances in the locker rooms, entering the field separately for the two teams, prohibition of handshakes or kissing to celebrate the goals, wearing a mask for the substitutes and the coach on the sidelines…
Everything to know about the hygiene protocol being implemented by the #Bundesliga ahead of this weekend. pic.twitter.com/kl7MBTCT6I
- Bundesliga English (@Bundesliga_EN) May 15, 2020The risks are in any case not minor for the players. Among professional athletes, some damage caused by a lung infection "can be irreversible," said Dr. Wilhelm Bloch, a doctor at the Cologne School of Sport.
What will happen if there are positive cases?
Currently, the goal is to complete the championship on June 27. But the League does not rule out extensions in July, if some contaminated clubs were forced by their local authorities to quarantine.
For the moment, only one is in this situation, the Dynamo Dresden (second division), after the detection of two cases. In the first division, several players have been tested positive and placed in isolation, but all teams are allowed to play on Saturday, on the basis of tests carried out regularly.
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There will be no one in the stands?
This recovery will however take place in a strange climate. In normal times, the Bundesliga attracts huge crowds (more than 43,000 spectators on average last season, twice as many as in France!), In often fantastic atmospheres, like in Frankfurt or Dortmund. But with the pandemic, the most crowded forums in Europe will resound hollow, since the championship will run until its end behind closed doors, or almost.
Around 300 people are admitted to the stadium on match days, but divided into three zones which must have no contact with each other: "lawn" zone (teams, referees, rescuers, photographers in limited numbers), "grandstand" zone (press, also in very limited number, and cameramen), and "outdoor stadium" area, ie the entire area included inside the walls or the fencing of the enclosure. Each zone can only accommodate a maximum of around 100 people.
To deceive this sinister spectacle, the Mönchengladbach club had a great idea: the supporters were invited to download photos of them online, in order to order a cardboard cutout of their portrait for the stadium, at 20 euros. To date, no less than 12,000 cutouts have been ordered for Borussia Park, enough to at least artificially garnish the stands.
Borussia Monchengladbach fans are supporting the club by paying to fill their stadium with cardboard cutouts of themselves.
The players trained in front of the 'crowd' on Friday pic.twitter.com/NDK2ehEAKo
And what about competition?
On the sporting level, the Bundesliga will not lack interest. At the time of the outage at the end of March, Bayern Munich certainly had a four-point lead over Dortmund and five over Leipzig, and appeared to be on their way to an eighth consecutive championship title. But opponents of Bayern have rarely been so well equipped to outwit Bavarian stars, including French world champions Benjamin Pavard, Lucas Hernandez and Corentin Tolisso.
The championship reopens with a prestigious poster: the famous "Ruhr derby" between Borussia Dortmund and its neighbor Schalke 04, before a "yellow wall" (the dizzying grandstand of the most fervent supporters of the BVB) entirely empty. Four more matches will take place at 3.30pm, before a very promising Eintracht Frankfurt - Borussia Mönchengladbach (without its cardboard supporters, therefore) at 6.30pm. Two matches will take place on Sunday, including Bayern Munich on the lawn of Union Berlin, before the end of the day, Monday evening.
The program for this 26th Bundesliga match day:
Saturday, 3.30 p.m.
Borussia Dortmund - Schalke 04
Fortuna Düsseldorf - Paderborn
Hoffenheim - Hertha Berlin
Augsburg - Wolfsburg
RB Leipzig - Friborg
Saturday, 6.30 p.m.
Eintracht Frankfurt - Borussia M'Gladbach
Sunday, 3.30 p.m.
Cologne - Mainz
Sunday, 6 p.m.
Union Berlin - Bayern Munich
Monday, 8:30 p.m.
Werder Bremen - Bayer Leverkusen