SecondEverything seems so clear and unambiguous: a maximum of one seat per second is allowed in the stadium, but no more than 25,000 spectators. The federal states agreed to this in early July. Only Bavaria has a maximum occupancy rate of 35, not 50%. Nonetheless: the clubs, especially the Bundesliga clubs, have developed a safety plan. Given the increasing incidence, this no longer exists. How the club treats people who are vaccinated, recovered and tested still seems completely unclear. Most importantly, Berlin’s politicians apparently did not notice the consensus being reached in the city.
On the contrary, football spreads a sense of deja vu: everything has existed before. Shortly before the last Bundesliga season, which started a month later due to the pandemic, the federal states agreed on a common route. It stated in a report in mid-September 2020: “During the six-week test period, the maximum utilization rate is allowed to be 20% of the respective capacity.” On the first day of the game, there were actually a few games in the venues. Thousands of spectators. The head of the club talked about being able to play in front of the team again in the second half of the season. In the end, the “experiment” or “start of the experiment,” as the Prime Minister of Bavaria Marcus Soder (CSU) said at the time, did not last long: the next wave had already begun. Only a few weeks before the next lockdown.
Some cities are pushing their limits
And this year? Three weeks ago, when the federal states reached an agreement, Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Maru Dreyer emphasized: “The important thing is that we have found common ground in cross-border sporting events and other major events, especially in Sports. Culture.” However, more and more cities are now meeting the hurdles of agreed regulations.
The premise is that the local 7-day incidence rate does not exceed 35 (Baden-Württemberg: 50). In the men’s first and second national football league Düsseldorf, according to RKI, the incidence rate on Thursday was 41.6, Wolfsburg was 57.1, Kiel was 37.7, and Frankfurt was severely affected. On Thursday, the value soared to 37.1, while on Wednesday it was 25.2. Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Berlin, where Hertha BSC is located, also broke the limit with 35.3. However, Hertha’s first home game will be played in more than three weeks.
The threshold above 35 has very different regulations, depending on the state and city. Eintracht Frankfurt had a public argument with Hesse earlier this week. On Saturday, a total of 10,000 spectators in the city took part in the test match with Saint-Etienne, 5,000 of them were vaccinated or recovered, and 5,000 were tested. The Ministry of Social Affairs protested, only hoping to allow a total of 5,000 spectators, without a dedicated team of vaccinations and rehabilitation personnel. However, after Eintracht announced that it would sue and the city did not consider the state’s interpretative statement regarding the state’s corona decree to be legally binding, Wiesbaden gave up.
Vaccination, rehabilitation and testing-no difference?
Although Frankfurt had to fight for the people and origins of the vaccine, it was already in Düsseldorf. “According to the currently valid CoronaSchutzVO NRW, we can allow 1,000 people (have been tested) and 17,000 fully immunized people to enter the arena when the incidence is level 2,” the Düsseldorf Division II announced upon request. Therefore, in accordance with the provisions of the state decree, the stadium will occupy the third place in the second division home game against Werder Bremen.
