The German Bundesliga is on course to become the first major sports league to restart its season after the weeks-long pause in play due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The league is slated to restart on May 9 pending final government approval and already has guidelines in place to prevent the spread of the disease.
Despite continued opposition from some sectors, the Bundesliga looks prepared to push through with its plans to resume the season amid serious financial concerns.
Once again, SBOBET is here to break down all of the major Bundesliga 2020 news about the league’s plans to resume play.
German FA give guidelines for Bundesliga return
A task force led by the German national team physician has come out with guidelines for how Bundesliga clubs can return to action and play games behind closed doors.
It estimates that a maximum of 322 people — this includes the coaches, team officials, medical personnel, broadcasting employees and security staff members — will be needed for each game, and all will be regularly tested.
Stadiums will be separated into three defined zones: inside the stadium, in the stands and outside the stadium. Only about 100 people are allowed in each zone.
The DFL estimates that 20,000 tests will be needed for games to resume, which is just a fraction of the over 600,000 tests Germany has available each week.
Pre-game rituals such as handshakes and team photos will be forgone, while post-match press conferences will be held virtually.
Aside from these, players also have also been handed guidelines for how to behave off the pitch in order to minimise the possibility of infection.
Curiously, though, the task force recommends not automatically reporting a positive coronavirus case to the press, since “disease verification” and “clear documentation of suspected transmission routes take priority.”
Moreover, the task force also believes the entire squad doesn’t need to be automatically quarantined if a player is infected. Instead, it recommends “ensuring a sufficiently large squad in the season’s run-in at an early stage.”
Bundesliga restart faces more backlash
The Bundesliga’s plan to bring back the season has not gone over well with everyone. Fan groups previously sent out a public statement condemning the decision to resume play amid the global pandemic.
And now, a German virologist has come out and warned that the risks to restarting the season are still significant.
Leipzig-based Prof. Uwe G. Liebert believes that the Bundesliga’s guidelines and safety measures, which include playing without fans and constant testing and monitoring of players, aren’t enough to guarantee their safety.
“We don’t know about the long-term effects of an illness with COVID-19,” Liebert said per the Associated Press. “It’s possible to get very sick or die from the virus at a young age.”
Liebert also notes how football players have such close contact with each other during games, so in case a player tests positive for the virus, everyone — possibly even the opposing team — would have to go in quarantine.
Meanwhile, Jorg Radek, a senior official of the German Police Trade Union, is also against restarting the league behind closed doors and believes it would pose a risk to public health.
Radek warns that some fans could still decide to go just outside stadiums in support of their clubs and form large crowds in the process.
Preventing those sorts of incidents would require a significant amount of police presence, which would add to the burden on the police.
Dortmund CEO warns Bundesliga won’t survive if it stays suspended
But while there are some who oppose the Bundesliga’s plans to restart play, Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke warns that the Bundesliga risks bankruptcy if it doesn’t resume play soon.
“If we don’t play in the next few months, all of Bundesliga will go under and then there wouldn’t be a league in the way we know it,” Watzke told Sky TV.
“Of course, many fans say: ‘There’s no desire for it, it’s not on television’, that is perfectly clear, but it’s about saving football!”
Watzke’s Dortmund are currently second in the table behind Bayern Munich. But despite being just four points behind, the Bundesliga 2020 betting odds still see the BVB as significant title underdogs as Bayern have much fewer issues surrounding them.
The league is hoping to finish the remaining nine rounds left in the season and collect the final payment on their television contract. If the clubs are unable to get that TV money, a number of them face the prospect of going broke, the DFL claims.
However, the decision to restart the season still rests on the German government. They will meet again on April 30, where they could potentially make a final decision on whether to give the Bundesliga the green light.
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