Covid-19: sports competitions behind closed doors in Germany from December 28 – franceinfo

Like an air of déjà vu. Faced with the rise of the Omicron variant, the German authorities have decided to toughen up the tone. Among the measures announced Tuesday, November 21 by the new Chancellor Olaf Scholz, sports competitions will have to be held behind closed doors from December 28. The Bundesliga will therefore be affected when it takes over in early January.

“In order to slow the spread of the virus, large interregional events can no longer be organized with the public, this concerns in particular football matches.“, declared the Chancellor at the end of a meeting of crisis with the representatives of the regions.”The number of infections will massively increase in the coming weeks, we must prepare for it now“, he stressed, calling for the”individual responsibility“Germans regarding compliance with the new restrictions.

The end of the 2019-2020 season – Germany was the first country to resume its competitions after the first confinement – then the entire 2020-2021 season was played behind closed doors. The German public were finally allowed to return to the stadiums last August, but gauges were in effect locally. Some clubs, like Bayern Munich or RB Leipzig, have already been forced by local authorities to play in front of empty stadiums in recent weeks.

As of Tuesday, the number of new positive cases reached nearly 24,000 in 24 hours while by Saturday it rose to nearly 43,000, after numerous restrictions came into force. Germany is, like its neighbors, very affected by the new wave of Covid-19.