Tuesday, January 04, 2022
30 players infected
Finally English conditions in the Bundesliga
By Stephan Uersfeld
The year has not even started properly when the 18 clubs in the Bundesliga have already reported 30 corona cases. No respite for the clubs. Worries about the second half of the season are growing. English conditions prevail in the league.
The new year is not even a week old. The Omikron wall is being built up in Germany and is having an increasing impact on social life. The seven-day incidence is still rising only slowly, and the numbers are still significantly better than in other countries. There can be all sorts of reasons for this, but this can also be explained by the unreliable data during the holidays.
The force with which the virus and possibly also the new Omikron variant is currently widespread in all corners of the world is shown not least by the latest reports from the Bundesliga. She wants to play FC Bayern against Borussia Mönchengladbach on Friday (8.30 p.m. on Sat.1, Sky and in the ntv.de live ticker) resume their gaming operations, however, numerous corona outbreaks take hold of the brace. The news agency sid reported a total of 30 cases in the 18 Bundesliga clubs in the evening Corona update on Monday. But that can change every hour. The fear of losing games is growing, as is the fear of gambling in the second half of the season.
Record champions Bayern Munich alone saw themselves forced to report six positive tests in the first few days of the year. Three more players could be added. The second half of the season against Borussia Mönchengladbach on Friday is in jeopardy. But the cases of the stars Manuel Neuer and Lucas Hernández vacationing in the Maldives and the case of the winger Kingsley Coman in Dubai as well as those of Corentin Tolisso, Tanguy Nianzou and Omar Richards are only the tip of the iceberg in the Bundesliga. Borussia Mönchengladbach, Bayern’s opponent on Friday, currently has to do without four players.
Quarantine regulation a problem
Eleven of the 18 Bundesliga clubs currently have at least one corona case. At Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig, Hertha BSC, Borussia Mönchengladbach and VfB Stuttgart, at least three players are infected. None of this has any impact on actual gaming operations, but that can change suddenly. According to the DFL game regulations, a club must have “more than 15 licensed players and / or amateurs / contract players who are eligible to play in the licensed team”, including “at least nine licensed players, including a goalkeeper”.
The rescheduling of a game is always just an outbreak away, especially due to the current legal regulations for the Omikron variant, which provides for 14-day isolation for infected people before the Prime Minister’s Conference on Friday. Depending on the federal state, contact persons are quarantined for at least ten days, with no exception for vaccinated or recovered persons.
In the league there is therefore fear that the Omikron wall will play the fate of some clubs and intervene decisively in the game. “I do believe that Corona will still play a role in the program,” said sports director Jörg Schmadtke of the “Sportbuzzer” and Leverkusen man Simon Rolfes is also preparing for a “crisp winter”. “Flexibility is required from game to game,” said the upcoming strong man of the works club. “Everyone will be hit in the next few weeks,” added FC Augsburg coach Markus Weinzierl. “We have to solve the problems as they come and improvise.”
Corona makes preparation difficult
While Bayern have sharpened their hygiene measures before the winter break outbreak, which has just become known, other clubs in the league have heard that the contact restrictions and hygiene measures have not undergone any fundamental Omikron adjustments. These have always been strict, of course, there could still be occasional breaches of the rules. Not everything can be precisely controlled by the clubs.
In the second Bundesliga, too, the news of new infections among the players dominates these days. With Werder Bremen and Schalke 04, two of the lower house’s figureheads canceled their training camps at short notice and are preparing for the financially vital promotion campaign in their home country. In Bremen, after five positive tests, concerns are growing about drastic measures by the health department – and about decisive setbacks in the next few weeks.
“It is more serious that we are missing players. We can also implement the content in Bremen,” said coach Ole Werner about the short-term cancellation of the training camp in Spain. The former trainer from Holstein Kiel, who also reported five corona cases on Monday, knows what he is talking about. Last season, a team quarantine hailed the previously sovereign storks from Schleswig-Holstein in advancing to the top division.
The frequent flyer professionals
Noteworthy in the current Corona cases: Some of the players were infected on Christmas vacation far away from Germany. Stars like national team captain Neuer or Hernández, the French central defender of Bayern, must first be brought back from the Maldives and then wait for the further course of the infection. The same applies to Kingsley Coman and Dortmund’s Dan-Axel Zagadou, who were infected while on vacation in Dubai. Inevitably, the question arises of whether footballers need to set off for distant goals amid the pandemic. “People get infected in all sorts of situations. Regardless of whether they are with the family, at work or on vacation”, Bremen trainer Werner summarizes the nature of a pandemic again. Langeoog or Dubai? The pandemic doesn’t care.
Corona and the pandemic are already irrelevant to many other leagues that simply run their game. Despite numerous outbreaks in the clubs, the clubs of the English Premier League spoke out against an interruption of the league before Christmas, continue to play in front of full ranks and only postpone games if it is absolutely necessary. In Spain, Xavi, the coach of the stumbling giant Barcelona, laments. Too many infections have thinned out the squad properly, but the league is less interested in them. She ignored the Catalans’ lamentations on Sunday. They had to compete in Mallorca despite eight Corona failures. The next day, two new cases were added, including the 55 million euro newcomer Ferran Torres, who had just been introduced to the fans in Camp Nou. Over half of the 20 top division clubs in Spain are currently reporting positive cases. In the Basque Country, audience capacity was limited to 50 percent.
Light at the end of the tunnel?
Society, and thus also football, continues to drive on sight. Although there is talk of the light at the end of the tunnel, it may just be a train that is racing towards us all. Everything remains uncertain.
The first weeks of the new year will be a real test for the Bundesliga. Football has long been denied any humility during the pandemic – sometimes rightly, sometimes out of sheer frustration. Unlike in most other countries, the league has to play its games again without fans, has a high vaccination rate despite less prominent exceptions and of course self-interest tries to find a way back early.
That doesn’t count anymore. The Joshua Kimmich vaccination debate has only just come through when the next excitement comes around the corner. Omikron will shake the soccer ball. As so often in these depressing Corona years. However, canceling or interrupting the season is not an option for too many reasons. “Go on, go on,” said today’s Bayern CEO Oliver Kahn. This currently applies to the entire league.