Tuesday, November 9th, 2021
Not all contacts affected
Why a Bayern quartet has to leave the DFB
By Stephan Uersfeld & Torben Siemer
Nine national players travel together to the DFB district, Niklas Süle is tested positive for Covid-19 there. But only four out of eight fellow travelers have to be in quarantine as contact persons. When looking for reasons, it is worth taking a look at legal requirements.
Niklas Süle immediately had to isolate himself from his national team colleagues. The defender from FC Bayern Munich had tested positive for the corona virus after his arrival to the DFB team, at least 14 days of isolation are required in this case. The 26-year-old will miss the international matches against Liechtenstein (Thursday, 8.45 p.m. / RTL and in the live ticker at ntv.de) and in Armenia (Sunday, 6 p.m.). According to a statement from the German Football Association, Süle is “completely vaccinated and currently symptom-free”, so the infection seems to be mild.
However, the Wolfsburg health department – in the city on the Mittelland Canal, the selection of national coach Hansi Flick is preparing – as the competent authority also sent four other national players as category 1 contact persons in quarantine: the three Bayern professionals Serge Gnabry, Joshua Kimmich, Jamal Musiala and Karim Adeyemi from RB Salzburg. At the press conference, team doctor Tim Meyer did not want to confirm or deny that this quartet are unvaccinated players, even when explicitly asked with reference to medical confidentiality: “The vaccination is a criterion, just like the intensity and duration of the contacts” for the quarantine order. The DFB had previously announced that only Süle had a positive corona test, all other tests were negative.
For the answer to the question of why it is these four who have to leave the quarters together with Süle and not the entire group around Süle – Meyer explained that the defender had traveled with eight other national players – it is worth taking a look in the Lower Saxony’s Corona guidelines from November 1, 2021. The health department in Wolfsburg referred to this at the request of ntv.de, the DFB had previously announced that this authority had ordered the quarantine.
The Kimmich debate continues
It says that contact persons who have tested positive for Covid-19 are referred to quarantine according to the following criteria: At least five days are planned without symptoms and without a negative test, but a different formulation seems to be decisive: namely, that for vaccinated and Recovered no quarantine is ordered after contact with a Covid-19 infected person. When asked, DFB doctor Meyer referred to the responsibility of the health department at the place of residence of the contact person, “in the Munich-Land case,” said Meyer. Also from the local requirements it can be seen that a quarantine is only waived if the vaccination is complete or the patient has recovered. For the four players of the Süle travel group, who are allowed to stay with the team, Meyer announced a “special care” with minimized contact and their own trips to training, for example, as well as additional tests.
The vaccination debate, which overrides everything in Germany, reached football with the Joshua Kimmich case at the latest. The Bayern professional had confirmed his status as an unvaccinated person at the end of October with reference to “personal concerns” due to the “lack of long-term studies”. The resulting debate escalated right up to the federal government. The still incumbent Chancellor Angela Merkel had spoken out as well as the new President of the Bundestag Bärbel Bas or SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach.
The DFB itself tried to capture the debate and classify it objectively. “I am vaccinated. And I also supported the DFB vaccination campaign ‘Referee, I’ ve already supported yellow ‘out of conviction. It would be ideal if every player were vaccinated with us,” said Hansi Flick at the end of last week in an interview with the ” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung “. However, the national coach warned against putting everyone who had not been vaccinated “in a certain corner.” Referring to the Kimmich case, he said: “Even if Jo [Kimmich; Anm. d. Red.] is not vaccinated, he is not a corona denier. He does not belong to lateral thinkers and conspiracy theorists. Anyone who knows Jo knows what makes him tick, “and the national player should not be” pilloried “.
Bierhoff responds to the demand for mandatory vaccination
Oliver Bierhoff had Kimmich’s back in an interview with RTL / ntv. “We just don’t have to be vaccinated and as long as that is the case, everyone has to be given their freedom, regardless of whether they are a senior international or whoever. Unless any rules change,” said the director of the national teams and academy at the DFB and put Kimmich’s prudent behavior in the foreground: “I think he still acts responsibly if he is very careful, doesn’t go out with the family a lot, wears his mask and is tested every two days.”
Before Süle’s infection became known, the president of the second division club FC St. Pauli, Oke Göttlich, called for the introduction of a 2G regulation for football professionals in an interview with Norddeutscher Rundfunk. “I am a clear advocate for 2G – for all players in football, for everyone.” Accordingly, only vaccinated or recovered professionals should be able to participate in the game. In mid-September, Göttlich had criticized the German Football League (DFL) for the fact that there was no clear vaccination recommendation for players and officials.
When asked about this criticism, Bierhoff referred to the “legal framework” to which one adheres. “Even as an unvaccinated player, if you stick to certain guidelines, you can do that,” said the DFB director.