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After the government press conference, the phones at the Bundesliga headquarters rang every minute. The government’s tightening of major events that hit the football club with a full barrage took the clubs by surprise. “We learned about the new regulations from the press,” said SK Puntigamer spokesperson Sturm Graz. “Unfortunately, we have to rethink our concept due to another surprising, short-term and questionable communication from the federal government,” tweeted teacher Red Bull Salzburg, amazed.
“This decision to change specifications in the short term is a great disappointment for us,” said Markus Kraetschmer, member of the board of Austria AG. “Thus the color of the traffic light is canceled, so it was necessary to stop the sale of tickets because we had already reached this number (3,000 / note)”. At the Generali Arena this weekend there were still 7,500 spectators to expect. Since the Violets do not play a home game in the first round, but will visit LASK on Friday, this is no longer necessary.
More stringent CoV measurements
The new Bundesliga season started with the Rapid match against Admira. There are ten thousand spectators in the stadium, but that will no longer be possible from Monday, because the strict rules of the coronavirus will only allow three thousand fans.
Weekly planning suddenly useless
“The clubs, of course, have invested a lot of time and money in recent months,” Ebenbauer explained. Subscription sales, which typically start at the end of a season, couldn’t start until much later this year, after it became clear that viewers could in principle be allowed again in the fall. “We have shown that we are very flexible and can adapt to new situations,” Ebenbauer said. But when the situation changes so quickly again, it becomes difficult.
Kraetschmer emphasized that additional economic damage would result for the clubs, “which will hopefully be offset by an extension of the compensation payment from Bundessport GmbH’s Covid-19 sports league fund.” Ebenbauer also expects the funding to extend over time, he made clear in an interview with the APA. All clubs, smaller and larger, are affected, because losses due to lower audience revenue must always be factored into budget.
The fans are offended
“Regardless of the financial damage, the important thing now is how you approach the fans. Who can enter the stadium and who cannot? How is the love of football maintained? ”Ebenbauer highlighted another problem that clubs will face. “We can guarantee the most loyal Austrians that tickets that have already been bought and paid for can be part of our first home game,” Kraetschmer explained. Austria has already started talking to sponsors about a temporary reduction in their free ticket quotas.
The “next bad news” for Ebenbauer was the announcement by Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) that the measures now decided will probably apply beyond winter. Postscript: New adjustments cannot be ruled out in the coming weeks.
The Bundesliga board declined to elaborate on what more months of “ghost games” would mean for the first two divisions. “Each game without a spectator is one more step in which one league or another cannot be finished with all the clubs,” Ebenbauer said. But there is at least the weak hope “that soon we will regain confidence or the opportunity to play in front of more spectators.” After all, the games in the first round of the cup also showed that soccer games do not carry an increased risk of infection.
