End of ghost games? Markus Söder nourishes hope
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder nourishes the hope of football clubs not to play in empty stadiums in the future.
“For football matches, more viewers are possible under Omikron Conditions, ghost games do not have to be anymore,” said the CSU politician of “Rheinische Post”: “My proposal is 50 percent capacity utilization with a maximum limit in the football stages.”
Söder refers to findings from research in his progress. “Science tells us: Omikron is 90 percent less aggressive,” he stressed, “and the hospital numbers remain stable. It would be inappropriate to ignore this.”
Nationwide uniform approaches found Söder “good”, but the implementation is not always easy. “There must also be a regional corridor. The situation of the local hospitals plays the central role,” said the 55-year-old.
Because of the high number of falls it had come to ghosts again after Christmas, only in early February the viewer exclusion was softened. Clubs were allowed to welcome some fans in the arenas.
However, from the point of view of clubs, this should only be one of several opening steps. On Friday, the 1st FC Köln had once again made an urgent application at the Münster Oberverwaltungsgericht to run at home games with a capacity utilization of at least 50 percent.