Bielefeld (dpa) – Bundesliga soccer team Arminia Bielefeld has to play the league game at Borussia Dortmund without head coach Frank Kramer and six professionals due to the corona.
“Frank is one of the people who unfortunately got it,” said sporting director Samir Arabi, confirming speculation about a positive test from the football teacher. Despite the high number of failures, the game on Sunday (5:30 p.m. / DAZN) is not at risk. “There are rules about when you have to play. We comply with them. In this respect, nothing stands in the way of the game at the moment. We have a powerful squad that will do everything in Dortmund,” commented Arabi.
Arminia had reported corona cases on Tuesday, mainly in the area of the coaching and supervisory staff, but did not provide any information on the number and the people. In the meantime, six professionals who are not known by name are also affected. According to the DFL rules of the game, at least 16 players are required to play a game.
Assistant coach Gruev represents Kramer at BVB
Coach Kramer will be represented in Dortmund by his assistant Ilia Gruev. Despite the thin staffing level, the former head coach of MSV Duisburg was optimistic for the duel against the second in the table: “The players have moved closer together. Everyone is hot and wants to play. I see that very positively. In such situations, the character of a team shows. “
So far, East Westphalia has been relatively unaffected by corona infections. Only goalkeeper Stefan Ortgea and captain Manuel Prietl had already been infected in December. Arabi has no explanation for the increase in positive cases: “We got through this pandemic very well for two years and have not become more careless. Nevertheless, we have an extremely large number of cases.”
The managing director referred to similar problems at other clubs: “Which Bundesliga or second division game is currently not at risk – I say none.” The opponent from Dortmund also has two corona-related failures with the two defenders Mats Hummels and Raphael Guerreiro.