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AEarlier this week, the discussions in German soccer again felt almost normal. In Munich, FC Bayern executives publicly discussed with David Alaba and his adviser how many million euros his head of defense should earn if he extended his player contract. On live television, supervisory board and honorary chairman Uli Hoeneß called Alaba’s adviser a “greedy piranha”, and Alaba’s father called FC Bayern a club that spreads “dirty lies” and “dirty accusations”. Oh football.
The Bundesliga plays again this Friday. In the Munich arena, FC Bayern face FC Schalke 04 (8.30pm on the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga, as well as on ZDF and DAZN). The contract with Alaba has yet to be terminated, but Bayern have sold Thiago Alcántara, their midfield strategist, to Liverpool FC for allegedly € 30 million. Everything sounds normal. And yet, as of Thursday at the latest it has become clear that the 58th Bundesliga season could be anything, but one thing is for sure: normal.
The opening match example showed in less than 48 hours how quickly the coronavirus can undermine the German professional football match schedule. On Tuesday, the prime ministers of the federal states agreed to allow spectators to return to the stadiums in time for the start of the Bundesliga season. At the same time, however, they also set a cut-off value: if the so-called seven-day incidence, which describes the evolution of the pandemic, is 35 new infections or more per 100,000 inhabitants in the locations, approval should not be granted for the fans.
A new question
On Wednesday, a delegation from FC Bayern met with the Mayor of Munich Dieter Reiter (SPD) and the Prime Minister of Bavaria, Markus Söder (CSU). And although the value of the ticket had already risen to more than 40 by that time, the club’s representatives were allowed to sell 7,500 tickets against Schalke. That was an agreement that was met with misunderstanding in many places, for example in Würzburg, where kickers were banned from playing their first game in the second Bundesliga in front of spectators due to the high incidence value.
On Thursday, when the incidence value for Munich rose to 47.6 according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and was therefore no longer far from the national crown alarm value of 50, Mayor Reiter finally changed his mind. . The city banned FC Bayern from letting fans into the arena on Friday. The corona virus has no Bayern bonus.
Last season’s successes: Hansi Flick and FC Bayern won the championship, the cup and the Champions League.
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Image: dpa
When Hansi Flick learned of the order from the city on Thursday, he was sitting in the press room on Säbener Strasse and answering the reporter’s questions via video conference. “We have learned to adapt to situations over and over again,” he said. “We have to do that again now.” There are some sporting questions that worry the 55-year-old Flick ahead of his first start to the season as head coach in Munich, but the virus has produced a new one: What should professional football really achieve right now?
“I know a lot of people have existential fears,” Flick said a week ago when he was allowed to place the Champions League trophy in the club’s display case alongside the championship trophy and the DFB cup. In recent months, his team has received a lot of praise for their way of playing soccer, time and again from those who don’t usually keep their fingers crossed for them. “That,” said Flick, “is our commitment to those who struggle and have to worry about other things at home in the crown phase.” If you believe him, Flick could do in Munich what Joachim Löw and the national team do with them. International matches in September were unable or unwilling: to bring joy to the people during this time.
And so on to sports matters. On Thursday one was especially important: What is missing without Thiago? “An exceptional player,” said Flick, someone who “gave a lot to the team”, someone who took care of “surprises”. In his seven years in Munich, Thiago was repeatedly underestimated because skill was often confused with recklessness in his actions. He was allowed to pass a ball later than most because he could do better. In many games, his ideas were crucial. And in Lisbon he won the Champions League as a strategist and regular player. Now 29, he, who played for FC Barcelona before his time in Munich, still wants to play in the most famous football league in the world: the Premier League.
Meanwhile, Flick is waiting for a replacement and a deal with David Alaba. Because if Bayern bosses had the idea to sell Alaba so they wouldn’t have to let him go without a transfer next summer, Flick would suddenly be missing his top two in the structure of the game. Flick has already pointed out that the coach has very good, but also very few, players in the outer positions in defense (Davies and Pavard) and attack (Sané, Gnabry and Coman). And it is that the French Kingsley Coman, perhaps this news has been lost in the last hours and days, it will be lost this Friday because it is still in quarantine after coming into contact with a person infected by the virus.
