The Bundesliga has now stopped playing because of the coronavirus pandemic and will no longer play this weekend. This was announced by the DFL on Friday afternoon. “Given the dynamics of today,” the decision was made to “relocate the 26th matchday that started today in both leagues”. In the morning it had initially been said that the game would be interrupted from Tuesday until April 2nd. This interruption should initially remain but from today onwards.
“The background is, among other things, that during the day there was suspicion of an infection with the coronavirus in the vicinity of several clubs and their teams and that further infections cannot be ruled out,” wrote the DFL to explain the late cancellation. The games should have taken place as ghost games. The game between Werder Bremen and Bayer Leverkusen had already been canceled on Friday. Fortuna Dusseldorf and SC Paderborn, who were supposed to play on Friday evening (8.30 p.m.), also applied to the DFL for a transfer.
The goal is still to “end the season by the summer – from a sporting point of view, but especially because prematurely ending the season could have life-threatening consequences for some clubs,” as the DFL reiterated on Friday afternoon. A general meeting scheduled for Monday is to advise on how to proceed.
On Wednesday there was the first corona case of a professional player in Germany: Timo Hubers from second division Hannover 96 was tested positive for the Sars-CoV-2 virus that causes the lung disease Covid-19. After a second case joined teammate Jannes Horn on Thursday, the Lower Saxony team is now in quarantine. The game between Hanover and Dresden was, therefore, the only one to be canceled this weekend. It was announced on Friday that the professionals of 1. FC Nurnberg are now in quarantine. Paderborn’s trainer Steffen Baumgart was also tested for the virus, but the test was negative.
