Germany’s Bundesliga could be the first major football league back playing amid the coronavirus pandemic, pending approval from the country’s government.
The plan could see games restart as early as May 9, with all matches played behind closed doors.
Germany is viewed as one of the European countries that has handled the Covid-19 outbreak but has still registered more than 153,000 confirmed cases and 5,575 deaths.
“The Bundesliga is ready to resume,” Christian Seifert, German Football League (DFL), said on Thursday. “Either on May 9 or at a later date.
“It’s not in our hands if we return or when. We have several options … for us what is decisive is what the politicians will decide. It is not for us to decide when.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet with the country’s 16 regional leaders on April 30 to discuss whether to extend or relax the restrictions on social distancing that are currently in place across the country until Sunday 3 May.
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On Thursday, Merkel warned that country could be at risk of undoing all its hard work in successfully slowing the spread of the coronavirus, telling German parliament the country is “still at the beginning” of the crisis.
“Nobody likes to hear this but it is the truth. We are not living through the final phase of this crisis,” she added.
Should the government give the Bundesliga the go-ahead, the DFL said that a maximum of 213 people would be allowed inside a stadium – 98 people at pitch side and 115 in the stands – while another 109 people, including security staff, would be posted outside.
Fans would be prohibited from gathering around the stadium.
The Bundesliga is also working with five laboratories to make sure players receive adequate testing for Covid-19 if play resumes, including “strict hygiene requirements, close testing and permanent monitoring.”
Each team will have a designated health and safety official that will ensure players are tested regularly and will report any positive tests to the authorities.
However, the DFL says a squad will not be automatically quarantined if a teammate is found to have the coronavirus.
“According to the management report of the Robert Koch Institute on April 22, the volume of test capacities is currently 818,000 per week, based on weekly working days. Professional football would not even prove 0.4% of it,” the league said in a statement.
“If, for whatever reason, the clubs need less testing, the freed-up capacity will also be made available to the public health service.”
