Bundesliga back on the training ground

Frankfurt / Main » The Bundesliga clubs are largely back on the training ground – in small groups under the strictest official requirements.

However, some clubs complain about the different procedures of the offices in the Corona crisis regarding the exemptions for professional athletes. There is no uniform regulation of the Federal Ministry of the Interior. High-class amateur teams watch the goings-on with the almost 500 professionals in the upper house with great eyes. The DFB strongly warns against copying them.

«It’s better than training alone at home. But it has nothing to do with normality, ”said Maximilian Arnold from VfL Wolfsburg, representing many of his colleagues, the unusual practice. «Each group has a separate cabin. We have separate showers and a permanent physiotherapist, ”said the midfielder in the“ World ”interview. In the weight room, everyone had their own mat and had to wear gloves. “After every exercise, we have to disinfect everything we have touched.”

Across the country, player duos that train together are common – but not in North Rhine-Westphalia: 1. FC Koln even sweats in groups with up to eight professionals, FC Schalke 04 with up to seven, Borussia Monchengladbach with up to five. All associations expressly emphasize that all the requirements of the authorities are complied with. This also includes a certain minimum distance from each other.

League leaders FC Bayern Munich – with the last injured striker Robert Lewandowski – and his pursuers Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig are again allowed to practice football-specific, while the game is suspended until at least April 30. «It was a very unusual feeling to hold a training session in small groups today. But it was also nice to see the boys live again, »said Bayern captain Manuel Neuer. Many are fed up with the home office under precise specifications. “I don’t know how often I almost fell off my bike before exertion,” said Eintracht Frankfurt’s Erik Durm.

Werder Bremen initially feared a competitive disadvantage on Monday but was then given the appropriate approval by the city’s regulatory office in the afternoon – albeit under strict conditions. Instead of the ten players requested by Werder, each small group on the training ground may only have a maximum of four professionals. The training sessions may only take place in the open air, the players must then take a shower at home and, above all, be subjected to “preventive entrance screening” by the team doctors before each session, according to a statement by the Senate press office.

Before the approval, trainer Florian Kohfeldt said: “We do not hope to suffer any competitive disadvantage here, but would welcome a nationwide uniform solution.” Bremen’s senator Ulrich Maurer (SPD) had also hoped for a nationwide regulation – but there will initially be none. A spokeswoman for his ministry said that Thuringia’s interior minister Georg Maier (SPD), also chairman of the conference of interior ministers, would not make any recommendations on this issue.

Jonas Boldt, head of sports at Hamburger SV, does not see any decisive competitive distortion in the different starting conditions. We don’t know when it will be played at all. » City and second division rivals FC St. Pauli had already completed training sessions at the beginning of last week, much to the unwillingness of the authorities.

In Hesse Kickers Offenbach complained bitterly that Eintracht Frankfurt had been training on the other side of the Main since last Friday. The regional league is prohibited from doing so by the local regulatory authority. “I find it unbelievable that different regulations are possible within one federal state,” said managing director Thomas Sobotzik.

Meanwhile, the professionals of SV Wehen Wiesbaden are back on the field, those of the second division rival SV Darmstadt 98 are waiting for instructions from the Hessian state government, “which regulates this in general”. The Ministry of the Interior basically speaks of delimitation of professional sports “as paid full-time work for professional athletes in corporations or about the economic activity of clubs”.

With its amateur clubs, the German Football Association had agreed last week to further suspend training and game operations. On Monday, the DFB warned to “strictly follow the order in order to combat the coronavirus”. The decrees of the responsible health authorities are decisive for the game classes below the regional league, “they are strictly based on them”.