The hope was great, the disappointment is all the greater!
The MPK has postponed the return of fans to the Bundesliga stadiums. “The federal and state governments will develop opening perspectives for the moment when an overload of the health system can be ruled out,” says the decision paper.
How are the Bundesliga clubs reacting?
BVB boss Hans-Joachim Watzke (62) to BILD: “Almost three quarters of Germans are vaccinated. For months there have been sufficient vaccination offers for every single citizen in this country. We now know a lot more about Omikron. Nevertheless, we sometimes allow almost 90 percent of the capacity indoors and only 750 people in outdoor stadiums. People are locked out in the open air. That’s not proportionate, that’s not science either, nobody understands that anymore.”
Photo: WITTERS
” data-zoom-src=”https://bilder.bild.de/fotos/gegen-freiburg-spielte-der-bvb-zuletzt-vor-750-zuschauern-und-das-im-groessten-stadion-deutschlands- -06535429a1964673b246c1abdeb24369-78929938/image/6.image.jpg”/> BVB last played against Freiburg in front of 750 spectators. And that in the largest stadium in GermanyPhoto: WITTERS
And further: “There were always complaints that football was given special rights in Germany. Just the opposite is the case. Football falls victim to symbolic politics. It is bitter that after two years the majority of MPK participants are only thinking about bans and not also about a minimum of possibilities and logical decisions. We will take a close look at the decisions of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and check whether we can have them checked in an urgent procedure.”
Means: The BVB boss is examining legal steps so that the stadiums can finally be opened again for more than 750 fans like in NRW.
Bayern boss Oliver Kahn (52) is also hoping for an early end to the ghost games in Munich. After the federal-state summit, the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder announced that he wanted to make adjustments to the corona measures. I expressly welcome that,” said Kahn: “We have to find sensible solutions for all areas of life, including sport. I very much hope that the Bavarian cabinet will discuss possibilities and opportunities at its meeting on Tuesday – and make the appropriate decisions.”
The new DFL boss Donata Hopfen (45) also criticized the decision not to open the stadiums further.
Hopfen in a DFL statement: “Containing the pandemic and protecting the health system are of course a priority, especially in view of the Omicron wave. In the interests of professional sport as a whole, it would have been important to reach agreement on differentiated scenarios based on the respective pandemic situation with a view to the admission of fans.”
And further: “Professional sport in Germany has proven with its hygiene concepts and their implementation that clubs and fans are living up to their responsibility. In particular, it is still incomprehensible that professional sport is currently objectively worse off than other areas of life in many areas.”
