The Bundesliga restart is not at risk even after the entire squad of second-tier Dynamo Dresden was placed under quarantine, the head of the German football league (DFL) said.
Dynamo were ordered to self-isolate for 14 days on Saturday after testing uncovered two new coronavirus cases.
The blow came just days after Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government gave the green light for the Bundesliga season to resume on May 16 following a two-month absence. But DFL boss Christian Seifert downplayed the Dynamo setback.
“It’s not a reason to call the entire season into question,” he told a German broadcaster. “It was always clear to me that this could happen. We’re at the very beginning of the restart.”
The Bundesliga will be the first top European league to restart matches since the outbreak of the coronavirus forced lockdown measures to be imposed across the continent. Matches will be played behind closed doors and with a maximum number of 300 people, including both teams, allowed at each game.
There are still worries that an outbreak of the coronavirus in the league could halt the resumed season, this time for good. Seifert said that although he saw no problem right now, further coronavirus cases could throw a spanner in the works.
“It can reach a scale where it’s not feasible anymore,” he said. “It would depend on how much time there is left to finish the season.”
The Bundesliga season is slated to end on June 30, he said.
“A lot of player contracts are running out so we want to play as many games as possible before then,” Seifert said, adding that some matches could also be postponed until early July.
The quarantine means that Dresden, who are bottom of the second division, will not be able to play their fixture against Hanover next weekend. As well as the players, the club is isolating its entire coaching and supervisory staff.
“In the past few weeks, we have made an enormous effort, both in terms of personnel and logistics, to strictly implement all prescribed medical and hygienic measures,” said club’s sporting director Ralf Minge. “We are in contact with the responsible health authority and the DFL.”
The German league said on Thursday that it had recorded 10 positive cases from 1,724 tests of players and staff at the top 36 clubs in the first wave of testing, and two more in the second.
Meanwhile, Tim Meyer, the head of the Bundesliga’s new coronavirus task force and chairman of the Uefa medical committee, said that while the German league had produced the safest possible system for resuming competition, it was vital that players showed discipline and kept to the new rules.
“Football has to give something back to the people now,” he said in an interview.
“That also means to be disciplined as a player. Keeping themselves away from the virus and the virus from them is the target. They need to be responsible. They are very public and need to show how to behave.”