The German Minister of the Interior and Sports declared on Sunday May 3 that he would resume matches in the national football championship. "I find the schedule proposed by the German Football League plausible and I support a restart in May"said Horst Seehofer in a daily interview Bild.
In Europe, given the coronavirus epidemic, none of the national football championships – stopped since mid-March – have yet received the green light from the authorities for a restart. The German clubs are the most advanced on the way back to the field: they returned to training in early April. For several weeks, their leaders have been campaigning to replay behind closed doors on May 9.
A meeting of the German authorities is scheduled for Wednesday, May 6 to decide on this subject. "Then we will make a clear decision regarding sports activities", Chancellor Angela Merkel said after a videoconference on Thursday April 30 with the leaders of the country's sixteen regions, which led to the adoption of a set of measures to ease the pressure of containment. However, on Friday May 1st, three players from the Cologne football club were announced positive for SARS-CoV-2.
Italy, Spain and England also waiting
After the Dutch League, the French League for its part decided to end the season definitively, taking into account the priorities decreed for deconfinement, on April 28, by the Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe.
In Italy, European country hardest hit by the Covid-19, the government has been curbing the heat of Serie A clubs for several days. It announced that collective training could not resume before May 18 and did not decide not, for the moment, on a possible resumption of the matches.
"The decisions that are being taken by other countries, like France, could push Italy to follow this line, which would become a European line", said the Italian Minister for Sports, Vincenzo Spadafora.
In Spain either, no date for resuming competition has been set. May 4 or 11 was mentioned for the return to collective training.
The Premier League in England is trying to build a project "Restart" (restart) which aims to return to competition on June 8, but behind closed doors and in a limited number of stadiums, according to several media.
