The fact that politicians are sticking to spectator restrictions in football annoys Hans-Joachim Watzke. The BVB managing director even does not rule out legal action.
“The majority of Germans are vaccinated. For months, there have been sufficient vaccination offers for every single citizen in this country. In the meantime, we also know considerably more about omicron. Nevertheless, we allow almost 90 per cent of the capacity in indoor areas in some cases and only 750 people in outdoor stadiums,” Watzke told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur on Monday.
At their conference, the federal and state governments had previously ruled out relaxing the Corona requirements in view of the rising infection figures and thus also stuck to the spectator restrictions in the professional football, handball, basketball or ice hockey leagues. At present, only a few hundred fans are allowed in the Bundesliga.
Watzke: “Football is becoming a victim of symbolic politics “
“People are locked out in the open. That’s not proportionate, that’s not science either, no one understands that anymore,” Watzke clearly criticised. “There were always complaints that football was getting special rights in Germany. The opposite is the case right now. Football is becoming the victim of symbolic politics. It is bitter that after two years the majority of MPK participants only think about bans and not also about a minimum of possibilities and logical decisions.”
Borussia Dortmund’s managing director is even considering legal action. “We will take a close look at the decisions of the state of NRW and see if we can have them controlled in summary proceedings.” In North Rhine-Westphalia, 750 spectators were last allowed, and for Bavaria, Minister President Markus Söder has announced looser regulations in the near future.
