Bundesliga to restart on May 15 after Merkel gives go-ahead
The Bundesliga will resume on, may 15, the German league confirmed Wednesday, after Chancellor Angela Merkel and state leaders gave the green light to restart nowadays following weeks of shutdown imposed to control the spread of the coronavirus.
The German Football League (DFL) confirmed the restart date to AFP subsidiary SID on Wednesday night.
"After weighing up all of the arguments, the DFL Executive Committee decided today... to resume play in the Bundesliga and 2nd Bundesliga from 15 May 2020," the DFL said in a statement to magazine Kicker.
Germany's top-flight can be the first of Europe's major leagues to come back to the field.
"Matches will be allowed beneath the approved rules," said Merkel at a press conference in Berlin.
Germany's top politicians approved a plan for the Bundesliga to resume in stadiums without spectators and with players regularly tested.
Permission was granted on condition that strict guidelines are followed -- with a hygiene officer appointed to each team -- to avoid contagion of the virus.
Bayern Munich and Germany captain Manuel Neuer said the players now had an "enormous responsibility" to be role models and follow the hygiene guidelines.
Representatives from the 36 clubs in the country's top two divisions will finalise details in a videoconference on Thursday.
'Wonderful signal'
"Today's decision is good news for the Bundesliga," said the league's CEO Christian Seifert.
"It's a great responsibility for the clubs to implement the medical and organisational guidelines in a disciplined manner."
Bayern Munich, seeking their eighth consecutive Geman title, were four points clear at the top of the table when play was halted in mid-March.
"It's an excellent feeling. We are actually looking forward to having the capacity to resume playing," said Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, adding the decision was "a significant and wonderful signal for the Bundesliga".
His opposite number at Borussia Dortmund -- the club second in the table behind Bayern -- also welcomed the news headlines.
"We are extremely pleased that people in Germany have behaved so magnificently that the spread of the pandemic has at least been contained," said Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke.
"Only as the population has been incredibly disciplined can we have now gradually move to another sort of normality."
Germany has about 165,000 coronavirus cases and 7,000 deaths, meaning it has so far prevented its hospitals becoming as overburdened as other European countries.
Economic reasons are also driving the decision to allow football to resume.
With 13 of the 36 teams in Germany's top two divisions reportedly on the brink of bankruptcy, the league desperately must claim around 300 million euros ($325 million) from TV contracts if the growing season is completed.
The league has long urged restarting play, which it says is essential for a sector that employs 56,000 people in Germany.
Teams returned to training on April 6 although sessions have followed stringent social distancing rules.
- 10 cases of coronavirus -
The league says its intensive testing plan allows matches to be relaunched with low risk to health.
Up to now, clubs in the very best two divisions have returned 10 positive results for coronavirus from 1,724 tests since training resumed.
Three are from the Cologne club and two from Borussia Moenchengladbach.
Health Minister Jens Spahn has argued that the testing regime "is practical and can serve for example for other kinds of professional sport," although he warned "it should be lived up to".
The league and politicians reacted with consternation when Hertha Berlin player Salomon Kalou filmed himself shaking hands with teammates this week, flaunting the social distancing rules that clubs have set up.
"The video has done the German league and professional football a disservice," Anja Stahmann, who chairs Germany's regional sports ministers, told RBB radio on Wednesday.
Hertha have suspended Kalou, and the 34-year-old former Chelsea player has apologised.
- Different approaches -
Leagues across Europe are taking different methods to the unprecedented crisis.
The French league announced the other day you won't resume the season, with Paris Saint-Germain awarded the top-flight title.
The Netherlands abandoned its season a week earlier.
The English Premier League, Europe's richest league, aims to restart in June, but dissimilarities have emerged over plans to use neutral stadiums.
Players in Italy's Serie A returned to training this week and in Spain, Barcelona say players underwent coronavirus tests on Wednesday as La Liga clubs started out restricted training ahead of a proposed resumption of the growing season next month.
The Serbian, Croatian and Turkish leagues also have announced plans for matches to restart.
