Masks, tests, empty stadiums: Bundesliga resumes amid virus

BERLIN — No fans, no hugging, no spitting.

The Bundesliga will be very different when it resumes Saturday following a two-month suspension caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

There will be no children to accompany players onto the field, no contact between rivals in the tunnel before games, no handshakes with the referee or match officials, substitutes will have to wear masks and sit apart, and even goals in the empty stadiums will be sombre affairs — players have been warned to keep their emotions in check.

Coaches will be permitted to remove their masks to shout instructions at their players – as long as they stay at least 1.5 metres (yards) away.

To compensate for the lack of atmosphere, Sky TV says it will offer viewers a new audio option with prerecorded fan chants, singing and reactions based on the games. Borussia Mönchengladbach will have artificial cutouts of real supporters in the stands for its remaining home matches.

Most fans don’t even want the league to resume — the latest polls from German broadcasters show a growing majority are against it — but soccer authorities were desperate to get back on track with several clubs, including Bundesliga club Schalke, already on the brink financially.

Chancellor Angela Merkel finally gave the go-ahead to restart the season on May 6 after taking note of Germany’s dropping rate in new infections for COVID-19, though she made it clear that soccer was low down on her list of priorities.

The last Bundesliga game was played on March 11 as the virus was beginning to take hold in Germany. Unaware, or perhaps indifferent to the danger, hundreds of Borussia Mönchengladbach fans gathered outside their closed stadium as their team defeated Cologne 2-1. Gladbach players even celebrated with supporters afterward in scenes that authorities are determined won’t be repeated.

“ We’re playing on probation,” league CEO Christian Seifert said.

Local authorities have the power to derail the clubs’ stated aim to finish the regular season by the end of June.

Second-division club Dynamo Dresden is undergoing 14 days of quarantine after two more players tested positive for COVID-19 last Saturday, placing its participation in the league in doubt.

Efforts to restart the third division are being hampered because clubs like Carl Zeiss Jena, Magdeburg and Hallescher FC are not allowed to train. A spat has developed with the German soccer federation, which wanted the division to resume on May 26.

The country’s top clubs don’t face such issues.

With nine games of the season remaining, Bayern Munich plays at Union Berlin on Sunday with a four-point lead at the top of the standings.

Second-place Borussia Dortmund hosts Schalke for the Ruhr derby on Saturday. Third-place Leipzig, which is a point further behind, hosts Freiburg, and Gladbach, another point back, visits Frankfurt, also Saturday.

But there’s no guarantee that all nine remaining rounds will be played.

The league has put off a decision on what will happen if play is suspended again or the rest of the season is called off. The standings would most likely stand, with the top team named champion and the bottom two relegated.

Teams were preparing for the restart in quarantine conditions this week. Augsburg coach Heiko Herrlich was due to make his debut in charge against Wolfsburg on Saturday, but he will miss the game after breaking quarantine restrictions to buy toiletries. Herrlich will only return after twice testing negative for COVID-19.

More than 20,000 tests for the virus will be carried out on players, coaching staff and other team officials as part of the league’s hygiene plan to complete the season.

But that hasn’t stopped some from outlining concerns. Cologne midfielder Birger Verstraete criticized the club for its handing of three positive cases of the virus, and Union Berlin defender Neven Subotic said that it was a “precarious situation” for all the players.

“It is going to be impossible to come out of the league with positive remarks,” Subotic said in a BBC interview.

Karlsruher SC midfielder Marc Lorenz was even more critical, saying the league hadn’t considered players’ health “at all” in its rush to get back in action.

“The players will be exhausted after 60 minutes,” Lorenz told the Badische Neueste Nachrichten newspaper. “The five substitutions that were just decided won’t help there. Fatigue will come and then the serious injuries.”

The league is allowing five substitutions instead of the usual three to help teams following two months without play.

The second division is also resuming Saturday, albeit without quarantined last-place Dresden.

The Bundesliga is the first of the five major leagues in Europe to resume. The French league has been called off. Now the Premier League, Serie A and Spanish league will be watching closely to see how German authorities deal with the risk factors that could lead to another shutdown.

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Ciarán Fahey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cfaheyAP

CiaráN Fahey, The Associated Press