As in other areas of society, sport should gradually return to normal. Sports could start at a greater distance from others, said Sports Minister Werner Kogler (Greens) on Wednesday. Until then, however, it would still take a while. In fact, Kogler canceled the start of the Bundesliga in May – as well as major events for the foreseeable future.
“From today’s perspective, it is not unlikely that sport – as well as the whole of social life – will gradually be introduced to ‘business as usual’ over an as yet undetermined period,” said the Vice Chancellor to the APA – Austria Press Agency. A model could be “that those sports in which the known standards are easier to meet make the start. Outdoor sports earlier than indoor sports, individual sports earlier than team sports.”
It had to be checked “whether the first sports facilities would be used if the disciplines practiced there did not require physical contact – tennis or golf, for example”. Kogler does not currently dare to predict when it will be possible to start training or playing again in the first sports. In any case, this “certainly will not happen before the shops open”.
Werner Kogler: “It’s hard to imagine full stadiums in summer”
For big events with many thousands of visitors it looks bad for a long time. “Frankly, it’s hard to imagine full stadiums in summer,” said the minister. “On the one hand, because you can’t release it responsibly so quickly, on the other hand, I’m not sure whether families will go to places where tens of thousands of people are standing or sitting 30 centimeters apart.”
In football in particular, the most popular sport globally, many leagues and associations will soon decide how to proceed. For Austria, Kogler has already given the thought that the domestic Bundesliga could soon run regular operations again. “We have to wait and see. The experts predict the climax (the Covid 19 pandemic, note) between mid-April and mid-May. Until then, there is no forecast that the game will start operating in May moves, “emphasized the Green leader.
There is currently a lot of discussion about the possibility of playing championships regularly but without spectators playing “ghost games”. “Everything is imaginable,” said Kogler, but immediately interjected that even in this case, a number of medical and operational questions would have to be considered. “Football is a contact sport. Who can rule out retransmission here? A positive test after a game can result in the isolation of both teams.”
Moreover, according to Kogler, it will not need a specific ban on sports events – as the national sports authority has now ordered in China. “That will not be necessary at all, because we always adapt the legal situation to what is justifiable,” said the Minister of Sport. “To put it bluntly: if there is a ban on representing the stadium, it will be difficult to play a Viennese football derby, if there is a ban on the assembly of more than five people, it will not be possible to hold a Vienna marathon.”
The organizers were also “to be expected to have a certain foresight”, added Kogler. “If the restrictions apply until day x, logic tells me that on day x + 1 I will hardly be able to hold a triathlon with 3,000 athletes.”
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