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UEFA still has time to cancel a match that is raising growing questions.
Can the Super Cup match between FC Bayern and FC Sevilla really be played in Budapest? In front of 20,000 viewers? In a city that was declared a risk zone by the Robert Koch Institute just a few days ago? In the Hungarian capital, which reported a record number of 1,070 new corona cases on Sunday?
A few more questions could easily be added to the list. However, so far there have been no official signs from Budapest or Nyon to suggest a change in plan. (UEFA Super Cup: FC Bayern – FC Sevilla on Thursday from 9pm on LIVETICKER).
That still means: Thursday night’s Super Cup game at 9pm is destined to set an example for the beginning of normalization in European football after Corona’s long hiatus. In a UEFA pilot project, the Budapest stadium will be filled with up to 20,000 spectators.
So far the plan that the European Football Association announced a few weeks ago, which is why an increasingly violent headwind hits him in the face.
Söder: “Don’t risk a football Ischgl”
Bavaria’s prime minister now urgently warns fans of record champions not to travel to the Hungarian capital and refers to the high number of new infections per 100,000 residents.
“Budapest is a risk zone with 100 incidents. We have to be very, very careful not to risk a kind of Ischgl football there,” emphasized Markus Söder in the Bavarian broadcasting and announced that quarantine regulations would be tightened.
Until now, they stipulate that a two-week isolation can be waived if the stay in the risk area does not last more than 48 hours. “We’re going to have to change that,” he said.
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Many Bayern fans seem to have taken the words as a final warning. Only a few of them came to the arena on Monday to undergo the crown test required to enter Hungary. By the way, a maximum of 500 Seville fans is expected.
The fan club board attacks UEFA
Thomas Ackermann also advises fans not to go to Budapest. “At the moment and under the conditions, it is really irresponsible for me to watch the match live in the stadium,” the first member of the board of directors of the Feuchtwangen fan club “Bayern Bazis Romantische Straße” said in an interview. SPORT1.
The 57-year-old has been an avowed Bayern fan for decades and has followed his club’s every final in the national champions cup and then the Champions League at the stadium since 1982 – except this year of course. In any case, only one member of his fan club is considering traveling to Budapest.
There are clear regulations in Germany and Bavaria that everyone must abide by, he says and is upset by the behavior of football officials. “I think it is insolent that UEFA ignores this with Budapest as the venue.”
If Ackermann had had his way, UEFA should have moved the game elsewhere long ago: “The time would have come to move it somewhere where it could have been safely.”
Danger to players: Kingsley Coman as an example
Even celebrating it in Budapest without a spectator is not an option for him. “I also see the danger for the players themselves,” he says, citing the example of Kingsley Coman. The Frenchman had to spend several days in quarantine after coming into contact with an infected person.
He does not want to contradict the comparison with Ischgl that Söder puts into play, from where the virus did not only spread to Bavaria in spring and fears: “That would be the worst, because something like this would put all public life in danger again.” . “
UEFA in contact with health authorities
At UEFA headquarters in Nyon, officially at least, the usual situation still prevails. The association is in constant contact with local health authorities and will follow their advice, they say.
In case the performance with spectators is discouraged, the entrance to the stadium will not be allowed and the price of the tickets will be refunded. However, despite the current increase in the number of infections, UEFA continues to stick to its original plan.
Probably also, at least at least, because a Hungarian has a lot to say within the association and possibly even more to lose. Sandor Csanyi is not only the richest man in the country and president of the national football federation. As Vice President, he is also a member of the UEFA Executive Committee.
Bayern fan Ackermann no longer believes in the spontaneous intuition of those responsible, but he still does not want to bury all hope. Because, according to Ackermann, he is known to be the last to die.
