Up to 25,000 fans playing football outdoors, up to 6,000 spectators indoors: the resolutions of the federal-state summit on Wednesday will allow extensive opening steps for spectators in the sport from March 4th.

For outdoor events, however, the utilization is limited to a maximum of 75 percent of the respective maximum capacity, indoors a maximum utilization of 60 percent of the respective maximum capacity is permitted.

The eleven-page decision paper contains greater easing than provided for in a first proposal for a resolution.

"We are on a special day of the pandemic, we can look ahead with more confidence," said Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz: "If everything stays the same, we will have a constantly improving situation in the coming weeks."

From March 20th, “all more far-reaching protective measures will no longer apply”, then full arenas will probably also be possible.

"We will maintain basic protective measures as an option, but not as a standard," said Scholz: "We will dare to open most of them.

But we need the ability to act when something happens.

Most of it will be that there will be hardly any restrictions.”

VfB Stuttgart, on the other hand, can already look forward to surprisingly large fan support in the groundbreaking home game against VfL Bochum.

As the Swabians announced three days before the match, thanks to a special permit, 25,000 spectators are allowed in the Mercedes-Benz Arena on Saturday (3:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky), which is 15,000 more than originally planned.  

No abolition of the mask requirement in halls

The regulations “open up the prospect of going back to full capacity with our arenas and stadiums from March 20th.

We assume that and are very optimistic," said Frank Bohmann, Managing Director of the Handball Bundesliga, to the SID on Tuesday and emphasized: "We urgently need normal operations again, the crisis mode must now be put aside as soon as possible, otherwise ours Business soon no longer feasible.

The German professional leagues, including football, stand shoulder to shoulder on this issue, we are in regular contact.”

Donata Hopfen, the new managing director of the German Football League, had already reported alarming figures that club losses in the pandemic could increase to 1.3 billion euros.

In some cases, income from spectators is vital for clubs to survive – especially in areas other than football.

There are no plans yet to abolish the obligation for spectators to wear mouth-nose covers for indoor sports.

"All countries agree that we need basic protection that prevents the numbers from rising again," said North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst.

This includes “the mask requirement, distance rules, hygiene concepts, testing and verification requirements.”

There must be "constant monitoring of how useful such a measure is," said Bohmann with a view to the mask requirement: "We have now accepted restrictions for two years that were difficult to understand here and there."

In all sports, it will also be a question of whether the fans will actually flock to the venues again immediately, should it be allowed again.

"It won't be done with a snap of the fingers.

Spectators will not flock everywhere again.

We'll have to do some reworking on one or the other point," said Bohmann.