Berlin, Jan. 19 (BNA): The German Football League (DFL) and three other major professional sports in the country have called for the easing of coronavirus restrictions and the return of fans to stadiums.
“In some places even existence [of clubs] He said in a joint letter to the office of the Chancellor and the Regional Director signed by Donata Hopfen, president of the German Football Association and the heads of leagues in hockey, handball and basketball.
“Ticket income is an essential part of refinancing in all professional tournaments,” reads the letter, seen by dpa and originally published by Bild Paper & Kicker.
Currently, only a few thousand fans – and to a lesser extent depending on regional rules – are allowed to attend matches, according to the German news agency (dpa).
The quartet said professional sport in Germany provided “the blueprint for many hygiene concepts around the world”. “With this background also, it is unimaginable that professional sport is currently treated worse in many places than in other areas of life.”
The tournaments demanded “clear, practical and above all forward-looking solutions” and a return from “general bans or crowd reductions” at the next meeting of political leaders on January 24.
And the Bundesliga managers had previously criticized the current Corona virus measures and demanded that more fans return to the stadiums.
Eckhard Soren, vice-mayor of Cologne, told the Pioneer news site that allowing only 500-750 fans to participate in games in certain areas was “completely disproportionate to sport and culture”.
“Having 750 people in a stadium with a capacity of 50,000 people does not provide any reasonable protection from infection,” he said.
Soren said stadiums are not a hotbed of infection. “We promoted 2G (rules that only allow entry to vaccinated or recovered people) early on and encouraged admission, and now we’re losing 1.7 million euros ($1.9 million) per 750-seat match because of this token policy.”
VfB Stuttgart President Thomas Hitzlsperger also disagreed with the regulations.
He said: “All available data show that football stadiums under second-generation conditions and under the control of the responsible authorities are not injury hotspots under the conditions and concepts established.”
The rules ignored the facts and presented the sport with an insoluble challenge: financially, organizationally and emotionally.
“We miss our fans,” he said. “The business model of professional football cannot work in the long-term for traditional clubs without spectators.”
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