Bundesliga planned details of resumption to a T with pragmatic approach that it cannot prevent COVID-19 contraction but only minimise it

Gary Lineker once said, “Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win.”

The former England captain was proved right many times over, and once again recently, when the Bundesliga resumed action over a week back. Germany showed the way to the world that even in these times of global pandemic, football can still be played and they can’t be tied under lockdown for too long.

It was the first major European league to resume action and following its successful restart, positive signals have come from elsewhere in Europe. La Liga could start on June 8, as hinted by the prime minister of Spain, and similar signals have come from Croatia and Austria too. The mighty English Premier League could follow suit too.

“In these times of gloom, the world of sport was waiting for some good news, a good development. Resumption of Bundesliga is a positive sign,” said Venky Mysore, the erudite CEO of Kolkata Knight Riders and an authority in global sport.

The league resumed, albeit behind closed doors, after the pandemic-forced shutdown for almost 75 days.

The lost time, however, was best utilised by the Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL), which planned to a T on how to go about it. The calibration was done to the minutest of details such as the walk in the tunnel, stay in the changing room, seating arrangement in the dugout, celebration of a goal, post-match operations, media conferences, guidelines for television crew, number of people inside the stadium, instructions for staff in the hotel, and even on the use of the kitchen in a team apartment.

At the same time, it did not proceed under the false pretext of fool proof health security. The goal here is to prevent infection for those involved as well as to stop transmission to others.

“The aim must not be to guarantee the 100 per cent safety of all participants,” the league declared in its plan of action. “This is likely to prove impossible. The idea is to ensure a medically justifiable risk based on the significance of football. All measures are built on the strict premise that there is no resulting competition with the general population over COVID-19 prevention resources.” Thus, the policy has been more of pragmatism than idealism or perfectionism.

“Someone said to me, 'it looks like the eyes of the world are on the Bundesliga' and I think that was true. We want to finish the season, but are aware there is a big responsibility that we do this correctly. Our focus is on one match-day at a time and ensuring the health and wellbeing of all involved,” Robert Klein, CEO of Bundesliga, said in a recent global group call.

Some of the measures put in place were to make sure that there are not more than 300 people in the stadium, the home-club players were told to arrange their own transportation but not by carpooling, each club was asked to appoint a medically-trained hygiene officer, balls were disinfected, a centrally-organised antibody-testing mechanism was put in place, time limits were set for use of the changing room, different paths were laid to the changing room, extra anti-doping rooms were created, mixed media zones were cancelled and press conferences were conducted virtually.

So far, the experiments of DFL, which also conducts Bundesliga 2, Liga Men and women’s Bundesliga, have been largely successful. The television ratings have gone up globally.

In India, which is not a large football market, more so for the German leagues, the initial numbers on television and online (made available to this paper) have been quite surprising. Lack of crowds has also helped create some drama as the conversation among players and instructions from the sidelines are being heard during live action.

Suggestions were sent to ensure extra stimulation for players by providing artificial noise during live action. The response was that the league will look into different opportunities in coming weeks as long as they don’t dilute the authenticity of the brand.

Meanwhile, giants Bayern Munich continued to head the 18-team standings with 61 points from 27 matches, followed by Dortmund with 57 points from as many games. Since the resumption, the main league has had 18 games and 64 more are left to be played; the programme is scheduled to end on June 27 if there are no interruptions.

One month from now, German football will have won again, and Linekar may well say what is so surprising about it.

PLANNING TO PERFECTION
MEDICAL MEASURES

Ensure risk of contagion is minimised

Each club appoints hygiene officer

At-risk persons identified through survey

Antibody tests and Covid tests to be carried out

Players, officials to be educated on transmission

Z O N I N G

Stadium divided into three zones: zone 1 – the interior; zone 2 – the stands and zone 3 – the stadium exterior

Maximum of 300 people permitted inside the stadium with no more than 100 in each zone

TEAMS, PITCH AND CHANGE ROOM

Arrival in multiple buses; distance of 1.5 m to be ensured

Players/staff to wear face masks on arrival

Disinfection of buses must

Home players allowed to come by car

Space out arrival of the teams

Different paths to changing rooms to be used

Use of changing rooms to be staggered

Time spent in changing rooms to be 40 minutes max

Masks must while in changing rooms

Minimum distancing rule applied in tunnel

Use of tunnel to be staggered on ‘first come, first served’

No child escorts for players, no mascots

No team photos, photographers only behind goal

No opening ceremony; no handshakes

Coaching bench must be clean, spaced out

Press room and mixed zone to remain closed

Press conference takes place virtually

Second anti-doping room to be set up

Match balls must be disinfected before and during match

Ball boys should be 16 yrs old, periodically disinfect hands

Meals to be prepared by team chef, no 3rd-party catering

TV production crew to be separated from the sports side

HOTELS AND ACCOMMODATION

Players to avoid private conversations

Ensure good ventilation in rooms
No eating together or joint use of kitchen, only takeaways

Hotel to have exclusive floor/areas for teams

Dedicated entrance and lifts for teams

No cleaning of rooms while team is in the hotel
No automatic reporting of a positive case to the press