Game canceled on the morning of the match day: The head of the Handball Bundesliga (HBL), Frank Bohmann, did not get any cheers.
TSV Hannover-Burgdorf had sold 4200 tickets.
500 meals for the important guests had been cooked.
The employees of the catering service had made their way to work - and then HBL canceled the TSV game against SG Flensburg-Handewitt.
It should have taken place last Saturday at 8:30 p.m.
Corona cases in the SG team prevented the event. First it was Simon Hald, in the end five people from the team and staff complained about breakthroughs in vaccination. Flensburg was already in Hanover and returned at lunchtime. Those responsible at TSV around managing director Eike Korsen were not very enthusiastic about the short-term nature. On the same weekend, after six corona cases, the game was also canceled at table leaders SC Magdeburg; nothing came of adding to the points account with a win against TuS N-Lübbecke. The pandemic is back in the handball Bundesliga.
It decided against its own statutes.
They say that games will only be canceled if half of the professionals are canceled due to quarantine or due to a lack of medical clearance.
Flensburg and Magdeburg would have had more professionals available - but it was canceled.
Out of caution, as Bohmann explains: “I understand the dissatisfaction of the Hanoverians.
But it was to be assumed that other players would have become infected through contact with teammates despite being vaccinated.
Due to this diffuse situation, we decided to cancel this game out of consideration for the health of all players involved.
Health is paramount and we played it safe. "
Regular PCR testing
As an entrepreneur he would find such short-term decisions "terrible", but as part of society and the solidarity community of the Bundesliga, the HBL had to make uncomfortable decisions. In the future, teams will have to compete if there are no upward trends in vaccination breakthroughs in team squads. Then a team actually has to play, even if only half of the squad is able to play - that was the last case for the second division club Dresden / Elbflorenz. There had been vaccination breakthroughs there, but the number did not increase.
In Flensburg and Magdeburg it was the case that in the days after the first positive test, more followed and further infections had a high probability. It will also be checked whether regular PCR testing will be reintroduced in the HBL in order to obtain more reliable results. Bohmann also knows that this will generate little enthusiasm because it is more expensive and time-consuming.
He says: “It helps in particular to comply with the AHA rules and to boost them.” 99 percent of the players and those involved in games in the handball Bundesliga have been vaccinated or have recovered. Many of the vaccine breakthroughs appear to have occurred in professionals who were vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine a long time ago. From the second half of the season at the latest, it should be introduced that anyone who was vaccinated or recovered more than six months ago is considered unvaccinated and unhealthy.
On the one hand, Bohmann is worried about the threat of game failures.
Measures that affect the audience, on the other hand.
Because with a hospitalization over 9, there can also be audience exclusions again.
Handball in empty arenas with known economic consequences?
Bohmann says: “We have to deal with this in our scenarios.
Many locations are still struggling to ensure that viewers do not return to the same extent as they did before the pandemic.
Right now, when a positive trend is noticeable, we are being slowed down by the dynamic pandemic. ”Bohmann hopes that the halls below 2 G will remain open until the fourth wave subsides again.