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After Bern, the cantons of Basel-Stadt, Baselland and Valais once again ban big events. Big clubs like YB, FC Basel or SC Bern had counted on his protection concepts and now feel powerless. But they are not alone in this.
On Thursday night, the Young Boys face AS Roma in the Europa League. It’s a great poster to be held in front of just 1,000 viewers. For a time, footballers in Bern took on 8,000 fans before the governing council banned major events again on Sunday. But only 1,000 people: YB quickly lost around 250,000 francs in ticket revenue.
This shows the aggravation back and forth in the world of the crown. Swiss team sport had just started to get used to it: positive corona tests, isolated players and teams, postponed matches. Everything can be put up with, as long as the stadiums are at least two-thirds full, as was possible again in early October. Somehow he lives with it, the main thing is that he is above the 1000 limit.
Back to the ban: Jean-Pierre Nsame and YB will only be able to play in front of 1000 spectators in the future.
On Wednesday, however, the cantons of Basel-Stadt, Baselland and Wallis followed those of Berne and called to remind them that everything in top-level sport could be as hot again as in the first six months with existential concerns and calls. emergency throughout the country, and perhaps all a little more desperate. . Because when ice hockey players interrupted the 2019/20 season in March and footballers carried the championship to the end in summer, they turned a blind eye and saw one horizon in front of the other: the 2020/21 season, concepts of protection.
When soccer representatives spoke out against canceling the championship in the spring, they also argued that not everything would be better in the fall, but it is important to gain experience for the life of an athlete with Corona. Now they have practically become experts in protection concepts, and the number of cases calls everything back into question.
The clubs affected by the 1000 limit have been deprived of their horizon. Nobody knows how long the giants YB, SC Bern and FC Basel will remain, but also FC Thun, EHC Biel and SCL Tigers with 1000 fans; At the beginning, FC Sion cannot allow any visitor to enter the stadium. At first, the Bernese felt that they had been treated unfairly, especially compared to their competitors from the canton of St. Gallen, who explicitly admitted the big events on Tuesday. Bern like this, St. Gallen like this, YB suffers, FC St. Gallen takes a deep breath, it gave the impression that Swiss sport was being exploited politically these days. But that is not the case.
No, sport is not at the mercy of politics. The last few months are proof of this. What did the representatives of soccer and ice hockey complain about in the spring that the sport has no lobby in this country? And yet the professional leagues managed to start the season with recognized protection concepts a few weeks ago. And nothing less: the professional leagues managed to adjust the conditions of the Federal Council’s rescue package, which in May had been deemed non-negotiable. Meanwhile, the criteria for repayment of the loans have been adjusted and the joint liability has been eliminated, all the requests made by the football and ice hockey leagues.
Politics takes sport more seriously than it is often led to believe. “When is it a different color?” Asked Marc Lüthi, SCB’s CEO, on Tuesday night on SRF’s “Club” show, referring to the ruthless red Bern Corona traffic light. These traffic lights impart an impotence influential sports officials are not used to, but they are not alone in society with this sentiment.
Above all, Lüthi criticized the communication from the governing council, which also showed that beyond the economic pressure, arguments are lacking at the content level. Many people fear for jobs, money, prospects; they don’t see the horizon either. But unlike Lüthi on Tuesday night, they don’t get a vote. Sports clubs are at least heard.
