The plans for the Bundesliga restart have been severely dampened by the positive Corona tests in the second division. Can everything go well?
The euphoria of a new start in the Bundesliga lasted just three days. After two positive corona virus tests with second division club Dynamo Dresden the continuation plans of the German Football League (DFL) are already being tested. The entire team has to be quarantined for two weeks, two second division games have to be discontinued.
“If Dresden now goes into quarantine for 14 days, that’s no reason to question the continuation of the second division completely,” said DFL managing director Christian Seifert on Saturday evening in ZDF’s “Current Sports Studio”.
But the fact is: After the permission at the political summit around Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) last Wednesday seemed like a small relief, a possible weakness of the DFL concept is now revealed: In future, even more local health authorities will react to positive cases such as in Dresden and send the whole team and not just affected players to quarantine, a whole test would quickly involve two entire teams and the schedule would be ever tighter. This leads to the question:
Is the Bundesliga season over?
Florian Wichert
Deputy Editor in Chief
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Per
Yes, because cases like the one in Dresden are factored in
A shock? The beginning of the end? Does the DFL fly their concept around the ears? The just punishment for football for frying an extra sausage? What nonsense!
What happened? Two players from Dresden have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. As a result, the health department – just as the DFL intended – made an individual decision and sent the team into quarantine for 14 days. The result: two of 81 remaining second division games have to be postponed. No more and no less.
A horror scenario? It doesn’t need it because the Ministry of Labor, the Federal Government and the clubs themselves have accepted the DFL concept for good reasons: because it is obviously responsible and good. Because the whole sports world looks interested to Germany with envy. And because positive corona tests and buffers for catch-up games are included.
Nobody could seriously assume that the Bundesliga would relax pandemic in the exceptional situation and go through without Corona cases. The goal is to end the season by the end of June, because then many contracts will end. If that doesn’t work, the season and the contracts have to be extended by one month.
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Robert Hiersemann
Head of football and sports
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Contraindications
No, enjoy every matchday – it could have been the last
The Bundesliga will be revived next weekend. And no matter whether that’s right or wrong, one thing is certain: the house of cards can collapse at any time. The example of Dynamo Dresden shows this.
And therefore the urgent request: Enjoy every game day! It could have been the last one for a long time. Why?
First, there is a risk that players from different teams will become infected with the corona virus at the same time. In these cases, the responsible health authority decides whether either only the infected professionals or, as in the case of Dresden, the entire team has to be quarantined for two weeks. The second option, if it happens more often, is a huge problem. Because the quarantine team cannot play games and cannot train. If this happens too often, the game plan cannot be held even with a buffer at the end of the season – and the Bundesliga threatens to be canceled.
Secondly, the players themselves pose an additional danger for the DFL and the clubs. What if many professionals become infected at the same time in the coming weeks or if a player is seriously ill with SARS-CoV-2? Professionals could go on the barricades, no longer compete and bring the game to a standstill.
Due to the Dresden case, the Kartenhaus Bundesliga is already shaking before it can be resumed.
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Who is right?
Florian Wichert (Deputy Editor-in-Chief at t-online.de) and Robert Hiersemann (Head of Football and Sports) comment on current football topics every week in the “duel of the week”.
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