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COVID-19: Bundesliga To Become Europe’s First Major League To Resume May 15th

Published

5 years ago

May 6, 2020

Joel Ajayi With Agency Report

The Bundesliga in Germany is set to become Europe’s first major football league to resume playing during the Coronavirus pandemic, with a restart confirmed for this month, it was announced on Wednesday.

Germany’s government and its federal states have given the green light to start again, with the date due to be decided when the German Football League (DFL) meets for an Ordinary Assembly on Thursday. The earliest possible return date is May 15, which some clubs appeared to confirm on Wednesday, with a May 22 start also considered.
The league has nine matchdays remaining, and there is a commitment to finish the season by June 30. Fans will not be allowed into stadiums, with a ban on mass gatherings in Germany until Aug. 31. Bayern Munich lead the Bundesliga by four points.

Christian Seifert, Ehief Executive of the DFL, said: “Today’s decision is good news for the Bundesliga and the Bundesliga 2.

“It is associated with a great responsibility for the clubs and their employees to implement the medical and organisational requirements in a disciplined manner.

“Games without spectators are not an ideal solution for anyone. In a crisis threatening the very existence of some clubs, however, it is the only way to keep the leagues in their current form.”

“The eyes of Europe and all of the world will be on us,” Germany and Bayern Munich captain Manuel Neuerwrote in an op-ed in German broadsheet FAZ on Wednesday. The goalkeeper highlighted the responsibility on German football’s shoulders and said it has acted as a role model for society.

Football players’ status as role models came into question after Hertha Berlinforward Salomon Kalou livestreamed a video of himself greeting teammates with physical contact and bursting in on a teammate’s coronavirus test. The former Chelsea player was suspended by the club on Monday and later apologised.

Some have voiced fears that fans could gather outside stadiums during the geisterspiele: the games without fans. But several leading Ultra and supporter groups have said they have no plans to do so, even though some have rejected the idea of football without fans.

Seifert, as well as influential club chiefs such as Borussia Dortmund’s Hans-Joachim Watzke and Bayern Munich’s Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, have warned that cancelling the league would put around 56,000 jobs in the industry in danger. Following negotiations with the broadcasters, Seifert secured crucial payments of around €280 million from the rights holders as some clubs feared for their survival amid the pandemic. Bundesliga club FC Schalke 04 called the crisis “existence-threatening

Lutz Pfannensteil speaks about the Bundesliga potentially returning to action on May 15 and how Dusseldorf are preparing.

Bundesliga teams resumed training in small groups in early April as the DFL worked on plans to bring back the league with a medical concept for training and match operations required by the government and its federal states.

Players and staff have been tested for the coronavirus, and in a first wave, 1,724 tests were conducted on all 36 clubs of the upper two tiers late last week. Ten cases of COVID-19 were identified and reported to health authorities. Not all cases were made public, as the DFL asked clubs not to report cases individually. Full results from a second round of testing have yet to be released, although on the eve of Wednesday’s decision, second-division club Erzgebirge Aue put their entire squad in home isolation after a member of staff tested positive.

Infected people must isolate, but the DFL’s plan does not require full-squad isolation. The league has asked clubs to go into the final part of the season with a squad that can be filled with reserve or under-19 players.

Political decision-makers have sent mixed signals on what will happen if a player or staff member tests positive for COVID-19.

“I don’t know how the season can be finished if one team is sidelined,” Anja Stahmann, the chair of the German sports minister conference, told Sport1.

Germany’s first COVID-19 deaths were reported on March 9, and the league was suspended on March 13.

“Corona is under control,” Bavaria’s minister-president Markus Soder said on Tuesday when announcing the lift of several restrictions in the German federal state hit hardest by the coronavirus.

According to numbers released by the Robert Koch Institute on Wednesday, Germany had 164,807 confirmed cases of the virus, with over 137,000 people recovered and 6,996 deaths.

Elsewhere in Europe, France, Belgium and the Netherlands have cancelled their seasons, and Italy, Spain and England are hoping for a possible June return.

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Featured

Dikko And The New Vision Accountability and Development in Sports

Published

6 days ago

December 16, 2024

The Gleamer

Felly Mammah N.

Since the Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Alhaji Shehu Dikko assumed office on the 30th of October, 2024, he has systematically and deliberately been putting in place structures that would result to proper development of sports in Nigeria. Shortly after he was first appointed by President Bola Tinubu as a leading strength of sports, the Director General (DG), Hon. Bukola Olapade was appointed to compliment his efforts.

Many sports analysts believe that the duo of Dikko and Olapade who have been very visible in sports administration will be one of the best combination to take the sports sector to the next level. The DG no doubt, is the head of administration in the Commission, but it should be noted that the financial enablement to manage the affairs of staff and the political might that shops for the finance needed in the running of the sector rest on the Chairman who has the task of liaising with the President directly.

It is also, worthy to note that there is a huge difference between the administration of in the Civil Service as it is controlled by a Permanent Secretary and Directors while the administration of a Commission involves Board Members and experts whose voices and actions are also, game-changing; more so as Commissioners are likely going to take charge of the different zones to proffer solutions for a way forward. The defunct Ministry of Youths and Sports Development which later in 2023 metamorphosed into the Ministry of Sports Development on the assumption of President Bola Tinubu, produced a minister who was not versed in sports administration and as a result, faced mass criticism especially from men of the media.

These men of the pen profession are the torchlight of global sporting activity; they equally keep the history of both sports participation globally as well as the records of athletes’ performances. Their torchlight on past Minister’s and particularly the recent past, have revealed that most of the people who presided over sports administration do not really have any knowledge of the sector before their appointment.

The exit of the immediate past Minister, Sen. John Owan Enoh, refreshingly paved the way for change and this has brought in sports personnels that are expected to place sporting activities in the digital world. Suffice it to also, say that the new management of Sports Commission in parts of her changes is expected to sanitize athletes’ attitude and character for better reflection of children who have seen and communicated with their peers in the Western world.

However, the clarion call for President Tinubu to remove politics in sports may have changed the leadership of sports going by what many sports fans saw in the last outing of both Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris 2024, where a country like Nigeria did not measure up to her potentials.

Despite the poor performance of atheletes during the World Olympics Games, the past immediate past Minister deserves to be commended that during his tenure, the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) Games was reawakened as the participation of our Super Eagles brought back hope and jubilation to sports fans including the President and higher authorities. Yes whopping sum of N12 Billion was released two weeks to the Olympics Games and at a time the country was not financially stable. Despite the presidential financial support, the medals presented to the country were crisis and ignorant of both the atheletes, Nigeria Olympic Committee and the Atheletic Federaton to do the needful.

Therefore, it is heart-warming that the President harkened to the appeal of his fellow sports lovers to handpick a known figure in the sports arena to share his wealth of experience that gave him both a name in Sports and positions as the former Chairman of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL), Chairman League Management Company (LMC), FIFA match Commissioner of significance, 2nd Vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and presently, CAF Committee Member, in addition to his new portfolio as Chairman NSC.

My reference point here is that Alh. Dikko has been given the authority to effect positive change in sports sector, co-ordinate over 40 Sports Federations in the sector, welcome ideas of both sports stakeholders, individuals and veterans of sports that will enable him x-ray the reasons for poor performances in the sector and to chat a way forward for success story. There can never be a new testament without an old testament, thus the reason Alh. Dikko’s doors have remained opened to receive courtesy calls that included the visits by past administrators and foreigners who want to facilitate with whom the cap fits.

Still, in the mood of celebration to formally welcome Alh. Dikko to office was the peculiar power of sports which gathered momentum and the crowd for happy moments as seen in the recent novelty match organized by his friends, associates and sports veterans at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja recently. That gathering clearly announced not just a man who has made a name for himself at a height in global political decision making in sports circle, but a man who has also, given voice to our country’s leagues and international activities.

Sports is a significant sector that comprises emotion, tension, happiness, sadness even death and hope irrespective of the fact that it has the potential to feed many mouths. The sector cannot be compared to other Ministries with delayed bureaucracies and frustration of abilities. While in the civil service the head will rather submerge a growing talent for fear of power thrown, a coach who discovers a talent takes the credit for showcasing a star athelete discovered. Sports has been proven to generate revenue as well as attract public partnership which are all aimed at enhancing podium performance by the athletes.

Shehu Dikko’s business vision and wide participation in football contributed in making him the right candidate to place the sector in its expected level, increase the GDP of the country’s economy and equally be accountable with administrative roadmap for success.

The novelty match organised for him by his sports fans and League managers had the likes of Samson Siasia, Victor Ikpeba, Mutiu Adepoju, Dominic Iorfa, Ahmed Musa in attendance to share their joy with him as they displayed their talent with their foot.
Others that graced the occasion were Super Sports General Manager, Felix Nwogu, former and present Chairmen of House Committee on Sports, NFF President, NOC members and persons from across the globe. That singular act indicated a clear fact that Dikko can actually gather momentum with persons that can support his ideology to deliver as charged by the presidency.

However, the Chairman’s meekness to open his doors to all does not mean weakness neither does it mean that he has not commenced work officially. His work is more of brain tasking because ideas actually rule the world. I will boldly say that he has resumed work with like minds that will not only be on the same page with him but will as well be on success Guinness Book with him.

Felly Mammah N.
Press Officer (NSC).

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