Corona: politics decide professional sport without spectators for November

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Bundesliga in the Weser Stadium

Photo: Poolfoto / imago images / Poolfoto

In view of the dramatically increasing number of infections with the corona virus, the federal and state governments only want to allow professional sports in November without spectators.

This also applies to the Bundesliga, according to SPIEGEL information from the consultations between Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Prime Ministers of the federal states.

The German press agency also confirmed the information.

After the first standstill in March, the German Football League and the German Football Association managed to resume the interrupted game operations in the Bundesliga and the 2nd Bundesliga with a sophisticated hygiene concept - initially in front of a ghostly backdrop.

For the current season, the DFL received the green light from politicians to be allowed to fill at least up to 20 percent of the total capacity of the stadiums with spectators.

However, the local authorities still had the right to reduce the number of viewers or even to exclude them.

This has recently happened in many places after the sudden increase in the number of corona cases.

For the coming weekend, a drastic reduction or the exclusion of fans has already been decreed for numerous games in both leagues.

A reduction in spectator admission to zero brings especially professional team sport leagues in basketball, handball, ice hockey or volleyball into existential distress.

"The situation is tense. If we are thrown back further, we are at a loss," said Frank Bohmann, managing director of the Handball Bundesliga, on Tuesday.

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