Now the authorities are also taking action in sports: football is rolling in front of empty ranks in many stadiums because of the corona crisis. This also fuels financial fears. Other top leagues may be affected even more severely - but there is no uniform line.
Berlin (dpa) - With the first ghost games of the soccer Bundesliga and the fear of severe economic damage, the consequences of the corona crisis hit German sport ever harder.
Hundreds of thousands of football fans will be locked out of the Bundesliga stadiums in the coming weeks, and on Wednesday the Rheinderby Borussia Mönchengladbach must be played against 1. FC Köln without a spectator. So far, however, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for all federal states - 1. FC Union Berlin wants to compete against FC Bayern Munich in front of a full house on Saturday. NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) warned on Tuesday that the "entire league" must "agree on a common line".
The fact that because of the spread of Sars-CoV2 infections on the recommendation of Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) no major events with more than 1000 spectators should take place for the time being, many clubs in other sports are also worried about the future. The German Ice Hockey League advised on Tuesday how to proceed shortly before the start of the playoffs, and a season break was also possible. The Handball Bundesliga convened an extraordinary general meeting for next Monday. In basketball, the Bundesliga clubs want to find a common regulation on Thursday.
After some hesitation, the authorities in Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia took action first. According to a decree by the NRW State Minister for Health, the soccer district derby between Borussia Dortmund and FC Schalke 04 can only take place on Saturday without fans, the city of Dortmund decreed. Bayern's top game in Dortmund on April 4 will also be a ghost game.
The Dortmund team will have to compete in an empty arena on Wednesday in the round of 16 of the Champions League at Paris Saint-Germain. "Nobody knows whether this is the right decision for football," said BVB coach Lucien Favre on Tuesday. "All of this is not yet thought through to the end," said Dortmund's sports director Michael Zorc.
The permanent rival from Munich, however, must play his return leg in Europe's premier class against Chelsea on 18 March as well as a possible quarter-finals in the Allianz Arena. VfL Wolfsburg's Europa League match against Shakhtar Donetsk on Thursday will also be affected by the ban.
The background to this is Spahn's request to cancel events with a size of 1,000 or more until further notice. The aim is to slow the spread of Covid-19 lung disease. All federal states are affected, there are more than 1100 proven infections. The first dead are also to be mourned.
However, not all Bundesliga games are played in empty arenas at the weekend. After consulting the local authorities, Aufsteiger Union decided against the exclusion of the public to play against Bayern in the Alte Försterei. "After all, Mr. Spahn did not recommend that BMW stop production in Berlin. That is why he cannot recommend that we stop our operations," said Union President Dirk Zingler of the "Berliner Morgenpost".
In Bremen, however, the game against Bayer Leverkusen must be played on Monday evening as a ghost game "or not at all", as interior senator Ulrich Mäurer (SPD) said. Bremen's Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte (SPD) asked the German Football League (DFL) to postpone the game day. DFL boss Christian Seifert had already said, however, that a break in the Bundesliga was "illusory" and brought nothing.
In addition to the sporting effects of games without a real home advantage for only a part of the clubs, the German professional clubs are particularly concerned about the financial consequences. For example, the Bundesliga soccer teams expect loss of revenue of up to three million euros per ghost game. The clubs and the DFL are not insured against it, said Gladbach managing director Stephan Schippers.
The clubs in subclass soccer leagues and other sports are even more dependent on audience revenue. "We are aware of our overall social responsibility," said the head of the Handball Bundesliga, Uwe Schwenker, of the German Press Agency. When making a decision, the economic situation of the clubs must also be taken into account. Champions SG Flensburg-Handewitt and Bundesliga leaders THW Kiel also have to play their next home games in front of empty ranks.
In other European countries, too, sports fans have to forego visiting the stadium because of the spread of the corona virus. Austria initially suspended the games of the 1st and 2nd soccer leagues. In Italy and Switzerland, league operations are suspended until early April. In Spain, Portugal, France and Poland, the games of the top football league will initially take place without spectators.
The first playoff game between Slovakia and Ireland on March 26 in the fight for participation in the European Football Championship will also become a ghost game. The coronavirus epidemic is also causing increasing speculation about a possible postponement of the European Championship by one year into the summer of 2021. The background to this is the concern of national associations and leagues that they will not be able to finish their championship competitions by mid-May as planned.
"UEFA is in contact with the relevant international and local authorities regarding the corona virus and its development. There is no need to change the planned schedule," said the European Football Union on Tuesday. The 51 European Championship games are planned for June 12 to July 12 in twelve countries.
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