Bundesliga: Nationwide ghost games threaten – “Something has to happen in football”

Bavaria Prime Minister Söder: “Great role model function”

Söder justified the step by saying “that the high mobility on arrival and departure is currently not responsible”. Football has “a great role model function”. Therefore one has to “reduce contacts everywhere”. Since Bavaria is struggling with numerous infection hotspots, the number of visitors allowed in the stadiums had recently been greatly reduced.

What exactly that means for the top game on Saturday between Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern was left open by NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst. The CDU politician expects “a significant reduction in major events”. Pictures like from the weekend in Cologne should and will no longer exist, said Wüst: “We will take appropriate decisions.”

The outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and her designated successor Olaf Scholz (SPD) discussed the corona situation with the heads of government of the federal states for three and a half hours from Tuesday afternoon. The calls for tightening the protective measures and restrictions had become louder in the past few days. The reason for this is the high number of infections and the spread of the new Omikron variant.

It was already an open secret on Tuesday morning that the ghost games or at least strong audience restrictions will be reintroduced. In addition to soccer, other sports are also affected. Finally, it was about the topic of the major events in its entirety.

Habeck: “Could have been banned”

“We have to cut back on leisure activities significantly,” said the executive minister of the Chancellery, Helge Braun (CDU), in the ZDF-Morgenmagazin: “The fact that there were big Bundesliga games with tens of thousands of visitors last weekend is no longer justifiable in view of the dramatic situation in the country.”

Greens boss Robert Habeck expressed himself in a similar way. “The Bundesliga doesn’t have to play in full stadiums. That is already possible and could have been forbidden last weekend,” said Habeck: “It was a mistake that the Bundesliga played in full stadiums on the last match day. That is absolutely clear, that should have been prevented. “

Above all, the derby between 1. FC Köln and Borussia Mönchengladbach (4: 1) on Saturday in front of 50,000 spectators had fueled the debate about the ghost games. Numerous top politicians and experts expressed their incomprehension.

The widespread return of the encounters in front of empty ranks, the end of which had been proclaimed by politicians six months ago, therefore seemed only a matter of time.

The fact that club officials like Thomas Hitzlsperger from VfB Stuttgart (“Ghost games are really dramatic for us”) and Alexander Wehrle from 1. FC Köln (“We are not the hotspots as big events”) were defending themselves against the ghost games seemed to have no prospect of success anyway to have.

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