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Germany’s Bundesliga: ‘All clubs’ preparing to host fans for new season

All 36 clubs in Germany's top two football leagues are preparing plans to welcome back small number of home fans when the new 2020/21 Bundesliga season starts on September 18, the league's chief revealed Thursday.

Published: 4 September 2020 09:49 CEST
Germany's Bundesliga: 'All clubs' preparing to host fans for new season
Cardboard cutouts of fans in a stadium in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-Westphalia on June 27th. Photo: DPA

“All the clubs have prepared documents and are in talks with the (health) authorities,” said Christian Seifert, chief executive of the German Football League (DFL) after a virtual meeting of the clubs.

However, the return of fans to watch live football relies on the rate of infection of the coronavirus staying low and due to the uncertainty, Seifert anticipates “a demanding and difficult season”.

READ ALSO: All eyes on Germany as Bundesliga football returns

Earlier this week, Champions League semi-finalists RB Leipzig paved the way after being given permission by their local health authority to host 8,500 home fans.

That means 20 percent of their stadium's capacity can watch live their first home game of the new Bundesliga season on September 20th against Mainz, but only home fans are allowed.

Now Leipzig's German league rivals, including holders Bayern Munich who kick-off the new season at home to Schalke on September 18th, are following suit by holding similar discussions with the respective authorities in their area.

However, it is proving controversial in Germany.

In mid-August, senior politicians refused to back the proposed hygiene measures by the German Football League to allow fans back into stadiums.

“That would be the wrong signal,” said Germany's health minister Jens Spahn at the time.

That meant each club having to approach their respective health authority, responsible for the measures to restrict the spread of COVID-19, in order to get permission.

The return of fans is the subject of fierce debate in Germany, where numbers of new infections are slowly rising.

“The questions as to whether supporters in Bundesliga stadiums sends the wrong signs are absolutely justified,” admitted Seifert.

READ ALSO: Germany's Bundesliga issues guidelines for fans' return to stadiums

However, he offered a counter-argument that it could be a “sign that thousands of people want to, and can adhere to, rules of conduct” by following hygiene measures.

There are already fears that some clubs could be barred from hosting home supporters, potentially putting them at a disadvantage.”It makes a difference whether a club has 10,000 or 15,000 spectators in the stadium and other clubs have 500. Then there is no longer a level playing field,” warned Wolfsburg's managing director Jörg Schmadtke.

The German Football Association (DFB) has already sanctioned the return of a limited number of fans for the first round of German Cup matches from September 11th-14th, providing each host clubs' local health authority gives the go-ahead.

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COVID-19

Is the pandemic over in Germany?

As much of Germany lifts - or prepares to lift - the last remaining Covid-19 measures, intensive care units say Covid-19 admissions are no longer straining the system.

Published: 24 January 2023 09:00 CET
Is the pandemic over in Germany?

Despite a difficult winter of respiratory illnesses, intensive care units in Germany say Covid-19 admissions have almost halved. The number of cases having to be treated in the ICU has gone down to 800 from 1,500 at the beginning of this month.

“Corona is no longer a problem in intensive care units,” Gernot Marx, Vice President of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, told the German Editorial Network. “A the moment, we don’t have to think every day about how to still ensure the care of patients, but how to actually run a service that can help.”

Marx said the drop has allowed them to catch up on many postponed surgeries.

The number of sick employees in hospitals is also falling, helping to relieve the pressure on personnel.

The easing pressure on hospitals correlates with the assessment of prominent virologist and head of the Virology department at Berlin’s Charite – Christian Drosten – who said in December that the pandemic was close to ending, with the winter wave being an endemic one.

German federal and state governments are now in the midst of lifting the last of the country’s pandemic-related restrictions. Free Covid-19 antigen tests for most people, with exceptions for medical personnel, recently ended.

READ ALSO: Free Covid-19 tests end in Germany

Six federal states – Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Hessen, Thuringia, Lower Saxony, and Schleswig-Holstein – have ended mandatory isolation periods for people who test positive for Covid-19.

Bavaria, Saxony-Anhalt, and Schleswig-Holstein have ended the requirement to wear FFP2 masks on public transport, while Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia, and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania will follow suit on February 2nd.

At that time, the federal government will also drop its requirement for masks to be worn on long-distance trains. Labour Minister Hubertus Heil says that’s when he also intends to exempt workplaces – apart from medical locations – from a mask requirement.

READ ALSO: Germany to drop mask mandate in trains and buses from February 2nd

Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg will also end the requirement for patients to wear a mask in doctor’s offices. That’s a requirement that, so far, will stay in place everywhere else. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has also said that he thinks this requirement should remain. 

But some public health insurers and general practitioners are calling for a nationwide end to the obligation for wearing masks in doctor’s offices.

“The pandemic situation is over,” National Association of Statutory Health Physicians (KBV) Chair Andreas Gassen told the RND network. “High-risk patients aren’t treated in all practices. It should generally be left up to medical colleagues to decide whether they want to require masks in their practices.”

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