BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – The clubs of the Bundesliga and other German professional leagues have to continue to do without a large number of fans for the time being. During their consultations on Monday, the federal and state governments ruled out easing corona requirements in view of the increasing infections, but did not tighten the measures either. This means that the professional leagues in football, handball, basketball or ice hockey are largely ghost games.
One must remain cautious, said Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) on Monday evening after consultations with the prime ministers of the federal states. It is still unclear how the pandemic will develop. The necessary decisions will be made if necessary. “But now the first thing to do is stay the course!”
Politicians did not give the clubs any hope of an early change. “The federal and state governments will develop opening perspectives for the moment when an overload of the health system can be ruled out,” said the published decision paper more generally. Because of the more contagious virus variant Omicron, however, this is not foreseeable.
Before the meeting of the federal and state governments, the most important German professional leagues from football, handball, basketball and ice hockey had written to the Chancellery and the Prime Ministers demanding an end to blanket bans. From the beginning of December there was a maximum of 15,000 fans before the decision to exclude fans was taken at the last summit on December 21st.
The heads of state at least agreed on Monday that the state and senate chancelleries should agree on a uniform regulation for major national events by February 9th. “The prime ministers talked about this intensively and came to the joint conclusion that they would come up with common numbers and values there,” said Scholz on the point.
Bavaria’s Prime Minister and CSU boss Markus Söder had recently campaigned for spectators to be allowed back into professional sports soon and, if necessary, announced that Bavaria would go it alone.
There are currently different maximum limits for the admission of spectators in the states: In Bavaria, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Thuringia, no fans are currently allowed in the arenas. On the other hand, the third-division leaders 1. FC Magdeburg played last Sunday against TSV Havelse in front of 13,385 spectators. This was allowed by the regulation in Saxony-Anhalt, according to which the stadiums can be filled up to 50 percent.
“I don’t think football is privileged,” said Bayern Munich’s longtime CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge on Sunday evening on the BR program “Blickpunkt Sport”. “At the moment I have the impression that football is viewed very critically, not only by the public but also by politicians.”/clu/DP/he
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