FRANKFURT – German Sports Minister Horst Seehofer supports a
Bundesliga restart later in the month amid the coronavirus outbreak
while Cologne player Birger Verstraete expressed concern after three
positive cases at the club.
"I consider the timetable of the DFL plausible and support a restart
in May," The Interior Minister Seehofer, whose portfolio includes
sports, told the Bild am Sonntag Sunday paper.
"But it is also clear for me that there can't be any privileges for
the Bundesliga."
The German Football League (DFL) and German Football Federation (DFB)
has created a manual for a restart behind closed doors later this
month, under strict health regulations and with frequent tests for
players and staff.
Clubs hope that the government will give the go-ahead on Wednesday.
In the interview conducted before Cologne on Friday announced three
positive test result from within their ranks, Seehofer insisted that
strict rules had to be followed.
"If there is a corona-case at a team or the team staff then the whole
club and possibly also the last opponent must go into quarantine for
two weeks."
DFB and DFL task force chairman Tim Meyer told broadcasters Sport1
late Saturday that the system could never be completely foul-proof
and would remain vulnerable.
"If there are too many positive cases, this system can certainly
falter," the DFB chief medical officer Meyer said, urging strict
discipline from everyone to make things work.
Meyer said he wasn't surprised about the positive tests as almost
2,000 tests have been conducted at the clubs and said their main aim
was "achieving a medically justifiable risk with a bundle of
measures" and it would take up to five weeks to see if the system
really worked.
Verstraete meanwhile expressed scepticism that measures the club took
after the positive tests were the right ones as he named restart
efforts "naive."
In accordance with the task force manual, and supported by local
health authorities, the three - two players and a physiotherapist -
went into quarantine for two weeks while the rest can continue
training in small groups and with social distancing in place.
Midfielder Verstraete told VTM television in his native Belgium, as
reported by the Het Laatste Nieuws paper late Saturday, that it was
"a bit bizarre" only the three were placed in quarantine.
"The physiotherapist is the man who treated me and other players for
weeks. And I formed a duo with one of the two players in question in
the gym on Thursday," he said.
It was therefore "not quite right" that no other members of the
Cologne team had come into contact with those affected.
The report said that Verstraete's girlfriend is a heart patient and
therefore part of a risk group, making him extra cautious.