By Website writer; The German Bundesliga is returning next weekend, the first major soccer league to resume in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel has confirmed.
After a flurry of leagues canceled the remainders of their season, there is heightened relief and anticipation for any soccer to be played before the next seasons are scheduled to start in the fall.
This glimmer of normalcy has, of course, set off a rush to do normal things. Like assess the matchups, with May 16’s Revie derby between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 being a highlight even in normal times.
Or consider the impact on all the U.S. national teamers who play in Germany. Or break down where we left off in the world’s new favorite sports league, alongside the Korean Baseball Organization.
Because these are the things we would regularly do. And we have so longed for this little slice of normal in sports that nothing will stop us from luxuriating in it.
There’s still no telling, however, if this is the right call. Or how this will turn out.
The lengths that the Bundesliga has gone to just to reopen are staggering. There will be no fans, of course – they will be replaced by cardboard cutouts of fans to make the empty stadiums feel less cavernous.
Some 20,000 tests will have to be conducted between now and the end of the season, which will chug along with two games per week to finish up the last nine matches of the season. Players will be tested twice a week the rest of the way.
Several weeks after they resumed practicing while socially distanced, each team will be quarantined in a hotel together before the first round of games kicks off.
That measure was the outcome of a tussle between Germany’s federal government and the states over the length of that quarantine; the states seem to have won and gotten their eight days, rather than the 14 the federal government originally advocated for, per The Athletic.
We will keep you posted
