The efficient Germans seem to have been much better prepared than other European countries for the coronavirus pandemic, and have a tiny death rate compared to the UK or Italy for example, so they seem to be much more confident that they can resume their Bundesliga matches before the end of this month.
Many teams have resumed training in small groups, and even the fact that two players at FC Köln have been tested positive in blanket testing, they are still happy to continue training as planned with the two affected players at home in isolation. Köln’s CEO Horst Heldt said, “The health and privacy of our players and employees takes priority over all other considerations. The present measures and the strategy of regular testing have proven that we now can react with individual solutions.”
Although the DFL intend to start games again before the end of May, they have to wait for a decision (expected on the 6th of May) by Angela Merkel to give them permission, but they seem very confident that the decision will swing their way. The German DFL coronavirus expert Prof Tim Meyer said: “We now see in everyday life that our concept recognizes and reduces risks at an early stage. We will always be in close contact with the responsible health authorities and medical experts. We are convinced that with our concept we can enable the players to practice their profession with the best possible protection against infection.”
The last meeting with the government was on the 30th of May, and the Bayer Leverkusen sporting director Simon Rolfes told the BBC afterwards: “The most important thing was we got good feedback from politicians for our concepts for games without spectators,”
“They [the government] think that we are able to do it.”
“In the next week we will see which decisions are there. I don’t know exactly when but we hope we play in May, the middle or the end of May, we don’t know.”
Although the Germans seem to be a lot more organized that England, the resumption of the Bundesliga could convince the Premier League they can go ahead as well, but could we do it just as efficiently?