Coach Steffen Baumgart from 1. FC Köln would like the next Bundesliga game to be relocated in view of the chaotic European Cup trip to the Czech Republic.
"We'll have a look," said Baumgart, "if there's a chance, we'd like to do that." Because of heavy fog, the Conference League game at 1. FC Slovacko was stopped after a few minutes when the score was 0-0.
This Friday (1.00 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Conference League and on RTL+) the remaining playing time will be made up, but on Sunday (7.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on DAZN) the game against TSG will be in the Bundesliga Hoffenheim on.
On Thursday evening, Baumgart still “assumed that we would play on Sunday”.
In a similar case, however, the German Football League (DFL) had already postponed a game quite recently: In February 2020, a Europa League game by Eintracht Frankfurt in Salzburg was postponed from Thursday to Friday due to a storm.
The DFL reacted and rescheduled the Eintracht game scheduled for the following Sunday.
"Knows how 1 p.m. goes"
In doing so, they are following the line of “granting Bundesliga clubs at least two full days of regeneration time before the next Bundesliga game after appearances in the Europa League,” it said.
At that time, however, there were less than 48 hours between the two games, in the case of 1. FC Köln it would now be a little more than 48 hours due to the kick-off on Friday afternoon.
The game at Slovacko is an important one for FC, and the club needs at least a draw to keep their chances of progressing in Group D.
However, Baumgart took the confusion on Thursday and Friday with humor.
In the first six minutes he saw "a very, very good performance" by his team, said Baumgart, "there were hardly any mistakes".
The new date on Friday afternoon is also not a problem: "I've been in the 2nd division long enough, so I know how 1 p.m. works."