All games fixtures in the Bundesliga may have ground to a sudden halt since mid-March in the ardent hope that this would help to greatly curtail the continuing spread of the rapidly advancing coronavirus pandemic, yet there are still flickering hopes in the hearts of many that are growing that prayerfully, and miraculously, might resume no longer than a month from now.
Bundesliga clubs in the German nation on Tuesday jointly approved measures to continue the suspension the season for another four weeks due to the coronavirus crisis in the midst of reports making the rounds that games would resume from the first weekend in May.
Directors of the German Football League (DFL) had announced last week plans to extend the current two-week suspension until April 30 in a consensus of mutual agreement approved by Germany’s 36 professional clubs in a video conference on Tuesday.
DFL president Christian Seifert in affirming that the German Bundesliga were “sticking together” said, “The board felt a lot of support (from the clubs).”
The German weekly Kicker had reported on earlier Tuesday that the latest decision of the DFL now is the hopeful plan to resume the season from the first weekend of May, with the remaining games to be played behind closed doors sans audiences.
Although Seifert did not confirm the reports, he did say however that it was “still the case that we want to end the season by June 30” as it is obvious that failure to complete the 2019/20 season would leave some clubs facing an “existential threat” in June resulting from the loss of crucial TV rights revenues, he added.
He continued to say that clubs were looking into various ways how the games could be hosted with the fewest number of people present, but was insistent that there was still “no single plan” and issued a warning that games may have to be held behind closed doors “into next season and maybe even until the end of the year”.
Seifert added that the demands of other European leagues and federations scheduling added further complications and called for flexibility sating that, “The next season that will take place in the way we are accustomed to will be 2021/22.”
Tuesday also saw amongst other measures agreed upon the DFL relaxing its stringent league licensing rules, which in effect means that clubs would be docked nine points if they were to declare insolvency.
There are now nine games remaining in the Bundesliga top-flight, with Robert Lewandowski and his Bayern Munich side as the incumbent champions in the lead holding a four-point advantage over second-placed Borussia Dortmund.