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It would have looked similar to Germania Halberstadt in the DFB Cup a year ago at Eintracht Celle against Augsburg - but not in the Corona year
Photo: Matthias Koch / imago images / Matthias Koch
SPIEGEL:
Mr. Cohrs, the national team flew 250 kilometers by plane from Stuttgart to Basel for an international match and was criticized for this.
How does MTV Eintracht Celle travel to the first round of the DFB Cup in Augsburg, 650 kilometers away?
Stefan Cohrs
: The players, the coaching team and the sports director travel by bus.
All have been tested in advance for Corona, as required by the DFB.
32 people go with me.
The board members follow the team with their own vehicles.
SPIEGEL:
The DFB justified the national team's flight with, among other things, the regeneration of the players who would have been in danger on the bus or train.
How quickly do the legs of the Celle players get tired against FC Augsburg?
Cohrs:
We are amateurs, we don't complain.
In between, the bus driver will stop so the players can stretch their legs and when we arrive in Augsburg on Friday evening, the team will do an evening training session to get the tiredness out of their legs.
We'll be ready for the matchday on Saturday.
The situation is definitely not ideal, but we're making the best of it.
SPIEGEL:
Your club plays in the major league, it is an amateur club and would have had home rights according to the cup rules.
Why did Celle, like almost all other amateur clubs this year, give up home rights to the professional club?
Cohrs:
Due to the corona situation, you have to make an enormous amount of effort in order to be able to hold an event, we should have ensured safety distances in the stadium or measured a fever, all these things.
You should keep in mind that we are volunteering here, football is not our job.
So we reacted accordingly before the printing of the requirements and safety regulations and swapped home rights, like almost all other amateur clubs.
The only exception is the SV Todesfelde from the vicinity of Hamburg.
SPIEGEL:
You hear that this club should have more money available, so they want to go through with the home game.
What could your club have earned with a home game during this time?
Cohrs:
It would have been a losing business.
The city of Celle would have allowed us to play in front of 500 spectators, from this number you have to subtract law enforcement officers, journalists, guests of honor and so on.
We would have sold around 400 cards, which could have resulted in a manageable amount.
However, we would also have had costs: The referees and the security service want money, podiums for the camera teams should have been purchased - that costs everything, we would have ended up at 30,000 euros.
SPIEGEL:
Couldn't you have got over that?
After all, it is the first cup game for a Celle team in 23 years and the DFB has given an inaugural bonus.
Cohrs:
Up until the last day before the game, we wouldn't have known whether we would have been allowed to play in front of a few hundred spectators.
And we had to decide long in advance where to actually play.
Before that, the number of spectators could not assure us that the risk without fans would have been hanging over us the whole time.
And then there would have been the enormous organizational effort.
We did not make this decision easy for ourselves, the sum of the different risks ultimately led to this decision.
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This is how we know the opening round in the DFB-Pokal: Superstars visit the village club - Here Franck Ribéry competes with FC Bayern at Drochtersen / Assel in 2018
Photo: Carmen Jaspersen / dpa
SPIEGEL:
Can you look forward to this game at all?
Cohrs:
It's a shame that our fans can't be there - yes, we're looking forward to it.
It's something special to be a guest at a professional club.
It's probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the players; we board members get our own box in the stadium from which we can watch the game.
But it is also clear that the rules of the game have changed.
In the cup, the underdog only has a small chance, but now it's getting even more difficult.
SPIEGEL:
We have already talked about the long bus journey.
What is another disadvantage?
Cohrs:
Augsburg coach Heiko Herrlich said in an interview, for example, that the lawn is now prepared, cut and watered as his team needs it so that the ball and the game can go fast.
It wouldn't have happened with us, with the amateurs it just looks different on the pitch.
Unfortunately, that puts the professional club in an even more comfortable situation.
But I don't want to look for excuses now and Augsburg really supported us a lot in advance.
SPIEGEL:
Does the DFB Cup still have its own famous laws in this situation?
Cohrs:
Always!
If we didn't have a chance, we wouldn't go to Augsburg.
Every game has to be played first.
I don't want to put our chances in percentages, they are very, very small.
But we are not on the losing track from the start.
Maybe we will stay clean for a long time, maybe we will surprisingly take the lead, then other factors will come into play than the playful potential and the class of a professional club like the ones FC Augsburg has.
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