BERLIN (Germany): Germany’s minister for the interior and sport said he supports a resumption of Bundesliga this month despite the coronavirus epidemic.
“I find the schedule proposed by the German league plausible and I support the restart in May,” Horst Seehofer told Bild newspaper.
The German Football League (DFL) backs a resumption of matches without spectators around mid-May, which would make it the first major European championship to make such a move.
Seehofer, who plays a key government role on the issue as he holds several portfolios, has emphasised that the teams and players must respect several conditions.
“If there is a case of coronavirus in a team or its management, the club as a whole, and eventually also the team against which it last played, must go into quarantine for two weeks,” he said.
“There will continue therefore to be risks for the schedule of matches and for the classification,” if there is any contamination.
But he said clubs would not have any special testing privileges denied to the rest of the population. Some sides had suggested carrying out frequent tests of their players as a preventative measure against the virus.
Germany had reported 162,496 cases of COVID-19 as of Sunday, but its death toll of 6,649 remains considerably lower than that of comparable European countries, which are home to the continent’s other top football leagues.
In France, Paris Saint-Germain were declared Ligue 1 champions on Thursday after French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced professional sport could not resume before September.
Meanwhile, English Premier League clubs on Friday reconfirmed their commitment to finish the season subject to coronavirus restrictions being lifted.
