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The German Football League (DFL) and its clubs await this Wednesday, when Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) will consult with the prime ministers of the federal states for a positive decision to resume play in the federal leagues. There has been much debate about when and how, not everything is clear. An overview of the most important questions and answers.
Has the league been restarted?
No, but there are more and more signs that the DFL is the policy of the 15th and 16th or the 22/23. It can be received. The DFL itself also assumes this.
Would the clubs save economically when the game started again?
No The economic charges remained high. Sports economist Prof. Christoph Breuer of the German Sports University in Cologne calculated that the 36 first and second division clubs would lose revenue of € 250 million even if they continued to play ghost games. This affects viewers, sponsors, and other advertising revenue. “To compensate for this, the clubs would actually have to ask their players for a 40 to 50 percent pay exemption,” Breuer told SPIEGEL. It is currently 10 to 20 percent in most clubs.
And yet a part of the rescue is already done even without a game. The DFL persuaded rights holders like Sky to transfer the fourth installment of TV money due April 10, even though it was not played. The sum is around 280 million euros. There was no agreement only with Eurosport. According to SPIEGEL’s information, television money does not have to be returned even if, contrary to expectations, the policy prohibits the restart of the games. In this case of a seasonal recess, rights holders would have to pay less television money as compensation in the next season, spread throughout the season. Because television money will increase anyway, clubs can better compensate for the deficit. However, clubs are struggling when the 2020/2021 season cannot start in August as planned. Because the rights holders will not intervene a second time.
Most clubs have only trained in small groups so far
ANDREAS GEBERT / REUTERS
What would be the timing for the reboot now?
The 36 professional clubs will meet for a video conference on Thursday to discuss how to proceed. Before the restart, each club must complete a training camp under quarantine conditions and continue to have players and coaches evaluated regularly. Clubs vary in preparation. Some have resumed team training, others are still training in small groups.
What does politics say about the concept of soccer?
The Conference of Sports Ministers has spoken in favor of resuming professional football, but the decision has been controversial. Apparently there is a lot of support from the prime ministers. Armin Laschet (NRW), Markus Söder (Bavaria) and Stephan Weil (Lower Saxony) have already positioned themselves at the start of each game. However, the Federal Interior Ministry confirms its position that soccer professionals should also isolate themselves after contact with people infected with a crown. “Horst Seehofer supports what he said. People who have been in direct contact with a positive person should be quarantined for 14 days,” an IMC spokesman said at the federal press conference. “This is a principle that applies to the entire population, and there is no reason for soccer professionals to be different.”
What is the DFL concept based on?
The hygiene concept comprises a total of around 50 pages. If dependent on the DFL, narrow mesh testing anchored to it should ensure that, if the case is positive, not everyone has to be quarantined. The DFL is based on the Robert Koch Institute definition of contact persons. More recently, however, Facebook video Salomon Kalous of Hertha BSC’s locker room had raised questions about the implementation of contact restrictions.
What should happen to positive tests?
The DFL has asked the clubs not to release the test results. This does not always work, as the cases in Cologne and Dresden show, where only those affected went into quarantine. Another case in Erzgebirge Aue on Tuesday led to a short-term quarantine of the entire team, according to the club. However, the newsroom is unlikely to do justice to the term: The team is expected to meet again on Thursday.
Can football, with its restart, prepare for other sports?
Of course. The basketball Bundesliga also wants to end its season in June. For tournament mode, she based her concept closely on that of the DFL, Gunnar Wöbke of the Frankfurt Skyliners told SPIEGEL. “Soccer naturally developed its concept with more power and more people. But we learned from it and got some things. We will go beyond soccer at some points,” said Wöbke. One would have based, for example, reducing the number of people to a minimum and regular tests. But indoor sports go further in terms of safety: Basketball players want to end their season in quarantine in one place. For this purpose, all teams must stay in a common hotel in June and all games must be played in the Munich arena.
The Basketball Bundesliga also wants to keep playing: its concept is based on football
Mika Volkmann / imago images / Mika Volkmann
Going back to soccer: will there be rule changes due to Corona?
Soccer is still a contact sport, duels and standards disputes will not change in the crown crisis either. But there are suggestions for customizing the game. Specifically, the sole idea of the FIFA world association is to temporarily allow five substitutions instead of three. The request is sent to the Board of the International Football Association (Ifab), which is responsible for the rule changes; approval is a matter of form. This should ease professionals in the coming weeks and months. There is a risk of a game schedule with few recovery phases: the Champions League and the DFB Cup have yet to be scheduled. However, the flow of the game should not hinder the game, two of the five changes would have to be made at halftime, according to FIFA.
Can the season be canceled?
At any time The ability of clubs to play depends on the health of their players. All soccer precautions can only minimize the risk of disease, but not exclude it. In the event of illness in the team, participation in the competition probably could not be maintained indefinitely. Above all, sport depends on the course of the pandemic. If a second “wave” of infections came through Germany, the relaxation could quickly become history and then it would also be the game’s special operation in the federal leagues.
Club players and employees must regularly undergo crown tests.
Jens Büttner / dpa
When should the season be completed?
Player contracts are valid at least until the end of June. Until then, the league wants to be as smart as possible, because from then on it is unclear who can play for whom or who may have a contract with the next employer. FIFA has made a recommendation to extend the documents with the season. The corresponding regulation must not be binding on German labor law.
What do the fans say?
At least active fans have recently spoken out against so-called ghost games. For example, in the so-called “Quarantine for football”. In it, more than 70 ultra groups of German fan scenes vehemently opposed the fact that the games will be played on camera in May. Instead, they express fundamental criticism of professional soccer. Supporters did not share the concern of some politicians and officials that fans would now meet in stadiums at parties. The “Our Curve” alliance referred to the sense of responsibility of many soccer fans, which is also evident by their social commitment to others in the crisis.
And the players?
Unlike the Premier League, for example, Bundesliga professionals have barely spoken. When Cologne midfielder Birger Verstraete voiced his concerns, the club caught him again and dismissed the interview as a “misunderstanding.” When SPIEGEL asked the 36 first and second division clubs, Leipzig, Dresden and Aue, only three clubs confirmed that the players had expressed concerns or concerns about the risk of infection. Most clubs answered no to the question or did not want to answer it.
Does the season definitely end without a viewer?
The federal and state governments agreed weeks ago not to approve major events until August 31, 2020. Bundesliga games with stadium capacities between 15,000 and 80,000 spectators certainly fall into this category, even if the definitions of major events vary by the federal states. In the DFL, those responsible assume that the ban will be extended, the cancellation of the Oktoberfest in Munich (from September 19 to October 4) is a clear indication. Spectator games will likely only be available again in 2021 at the earliest.
Will football be reformed through the crisis?
One cannot answer that today. DFL Managing Director Christian Seifert has already publicly spoken out in favor of the reforms. He wants to establish a working group “Future professional football” that will resolve what regulatory measures may be in the fall. Key word: salary limit, consultant fee limitation. If Seifert and the DFL are taken seriously this will also be seen from who will belong to this working group: the representatives of the main clubs and second division teams should be considered equally. The DFL has already embarked on a major overhaul: According to information from SPIEGEL, it wants to prevent future television funds from committing to banks like the International Bankhaus Bodensee or the Luxembourg Quattrex source. This financial practice is one of the reasons that some clubs have gotten into trouble in the current crisis. You have spent money to come in the future for TV rate distribution. If these payments are not made for a few weeks, as was the case recently, bottlenecks arise.
