Bundesliga at risk after new wave of virus rear heads in Germany

Bundesliga at risk after new wave of virus rear heads in Germany as the league is set to go back behind closed doors from November 2nd

 

Bundesliga champions, Bayern Munich celebrates after a routine team goal (Photo credit: fcbayern.com)

The German Bundesliga will go back behind closed doors from Nov. 2 for the rest of the month as the country's government combats the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic with several restrictions to public life.

At a virtual meeting on Wednesday, German chancellor Angela Merkel and the 16 heads of the German federal states decided amongst other measures that all professional sports including the Bundesliga must be played behind closed doors.

Although the restrictions doesn’t come into full effect until Monday, weekend games can still go ahead with few fans allowed.

 

Heading into the season, German clubs were allowed to bring back up to 20% of their fans if local health authorities approved their hygiene concepts and infection numbers remained below a seven-day incidence of 35

On Oct. 3, BVB welcomed 11,500 spectators to their 81,000 capacity Westfalenstadion as they beat Freiburg 4-0. This remained the highest single attendance in the Bundesliga with new infections putting the brakes on further records.

 

Other clubs, like Champions League winners Bayern, were not able to have any fans at all due to a high number of cases in the region.

Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenige suggested that the "Bundesliga could collapse in its entirety" should the league be suspended again -- but the league is avoiding that scenario for now.

"If the Bundesliga is suspended again, if we are not allowed to play even without fans, bit-by-bit several clubs would have to declare bankruptcy," Rummenigge told newsmen on Tuesday. "And as a result, the Bundesliga would be in danger of collapsing entirely."

 

Several clubs like Mainz, Shalke and Weder Bremen have said the coronavirus pandemic has put them in a bad place financially.