Salomon Kalou is a player you can chat with. About God, about happiness, about humility. The 34-year-old attacker from Hertha BSC is interested in art. He maintains his own foundation – and not just for image reasons. Kalou is someone who loves life. But he also thinks about it.
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And therefore it is difficult to understand that an appearance by Salomon Kalou of all times is torpedoing the weeks of efforts of the German Football League (DFL) to restart the Bundesliga and Second League in the Corona crisis soon. Perhaps it is also particularly significant if one of the oldest and reflected professionals of a team documents how apparently naturally rules are broken, which were actually set up for the safety of the players and their families – and to ensure the operation of the game.
On Monday afternoon, the striker streamed his way to Hertha BSC training live on Facebook for 25 minutes. What would have been banal in normal times became a scandal here. Because Kalou filmed with his cell phone how several players and at least one fitness coach from Hertha BSC disregarded the hygiene measures of the DFL. When he entered the Hertha booth, he shook hands with some colleagues and fists with others. He sat right next to his storm partner Vedad Ibisevic. He filmed a physical therapist doing a corona test.
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The fragility of the undertaking
Two weeks ago, the DFL had drawn up a hygiene catalog on around 50 pages, which also stipulated the requirements for team training. It says on page 30: “Length of stay in the cabin before and after training should be minimized, as well as the duration and intensity of contact with teammates and supervisors.” And: “Use of the common rooms (changing rooms, showers) only in small groups with a guarantee of at least 2 m distance.” It also speaks of a separate room for smear diagnostics “that is not used for other purposes”. So not from players who film the tests on the side.
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Kalou’s Facebook stream now reveals, however, that the DFL’s security concept can fail in real life before it even has an appointment for the remaining season games. It is a kind of video evidence of the fragility of the whole thing. It gives the impression that a team doesn’t even stick to the basics when they feel unobserved in their sacred cabin retreat.
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During the subsequent training, Kalou was ordered from the square and to repeat by Hertha’s manager Michael Preetz. He should explain what he was thinking. You can hear from the club how consternated you were. A representative of another club immediately got angry with those responsible for Hertha.
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In the evening Hertha distanced herself and suspended Kalou. In a club announcement it said: “Hertha BSC would like to state that this was the failure of a single player.” Preetz was quoted as saying: “With his video, Salomon Kalou not only caused a great deal of damage to Hertha BSC, but above all in the current social discussion about the resumption of play and the role of professional football gives the impression that individual players do Do not take the Corona issue seriously. I would like to emphasize, however, that we have drawn everyone’s attention to the hygiene and distance rules and ensure that they are strictly observed. “
A few hours before the scandal broke out, the DFL Presidium sat in a video booth. It was about the decision expected by politics on Wednesday to resume gaming with ghost games. It was about the case of 1. FC Köln from the weekend, in which two players and a supervisor had tested positive for the Covid 19 pathogen and the Belgian professional Birger Verstraete had expressed his concerns in an interview. Represented partner is particularly at risk from a previous illness. The DFL announced in the afternoon that there had been a total of ten positive tests in the first test round among all 36 clubs.
According to SPIEGEL information, the following sentence should have fallen in the Presidium round: “We have done our job. Now it shows how professional the league is.” The Facebook video from the Hertha booth can be heard: “That is irresponsible.”
Player union sees shortcomings in the education
The Kalou case now gives the impression that the league may not be working professionally enough to start playing again, or that the entire hygiene concept is built on sand.
At the DFL, they continue to assume that they will be given the green light by the Prime Minister and Chancellor Angela Merkel for games from mid / late May on Wednesday. But the debate about the restart is now being waged with two new impressions: first, there are apparently players who are concerned about the plan to continue. Second, there is at least one team that does not adhere to the basic rules.
If you ask the players’ union in Germany, the association of contract footballers (VDV), one hears reluctance to point one: “Most players think that they want to play when it is medically and morally justifiable,” says VDV managing director Ulf Baranowsky the SPIEGEL. But the unionist also says that concerned players have asked him questions. And that educational work had to be done there: “One or the other does not feel well informed about their club,” says Baranowsky.
The clubs themselves see it differently. Responding to a request from SPIEGEL at the 36 first and second division clubs to inform the players about the risk of infection on Monday 29, RB Leipzig, for example, stated that it informed the players “several times in the form of detailed individual discussions, handouts in several languages and notices in the training center” to have. Eintracht Frankfurt referred to “training in small groups”, and TSG Hoffenheim to “presentations (specially made video) and in writing”. By the way, Hertha BSC stated that players had been instructed by the hygiene officer and team doctor.
When asked whether players had questions or concerns about the club, only three clubs with Leipzig, Dresden and Aue explicitly admitted it, or indicated it like Hanover, Bremen, Dusseldorf and HSV. The majority of the clubs answered in the negative or did not go into detail.
Next DFL video assembly on Thursday
According to labor law, the players would have to fulfill their contractual obligations if the requirements of occupational health and infection protection were followed, explains trade unionist Baranowsky. In the event of individual concerns, however, the clubs would also signal willingness to talk.
When asked whether a player was free to participate in training or game operations if he had any concerns, nine clubs answered yes. Others circumvented a clear statement like Borussia Dortmund: “For professional athletes there is – compared to other branches – a significantly higher security within the DFL concept (…). If a player nevertheless had concerns about practicing his profession, we would raise these concerns in the discuss with him personally. “
The 36 professional clubs will meet on Thursday for another video conference. Some of the clubs may have hoped that there could already be talked about the modalities of continuing to play after the go-ahead by politics. At least the Kalou case did not do the enterprise any good.
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