German govt backs Bundesliga restart

BERLIN — German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and German Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer talk ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) continues, in Berlin, Germany April 1, 2020.

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and German Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer talk ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) continues, in Berlin, Germany April 1, 2020.

Germany’s minister for the interior and sport said on Sunday he supports a resumption of the country’s football season this month despite the coronavirus epidemic.

“I find the schedule proposed by the German league plausible and I support the restart in May,” Horst Seehofer told Bild newspaper, three days before a meeting of German authorities to discuss the issue.

The German Football League (DFL) backs a resumption of matches without spectators around mid-May, which would make it the first major European championship to make such a move.

Seehofer, who plays a key government role on the issue as he holds several portfolios, has emphasised that the teams and players must respect several conditions.

“If there is a case of coronavirus in a team or its management, the club as a whole, and eventually also the team against which it last played, must go into quarantine for two weeks,” he said.

“There will continue therefore to be risks for the schedule of matches and for the classification,” if there is any contamination.

But he said clubs would not have any special testing privileges denied to the rest of the population.

Some sides had suggested carrying out frequent tests of their players as a preventative measure against the virus. — Online