Germany’s top Bundesliga have this week agreed to plans drawn up by football authorities which could allow the partial return of fans to stadiums from mid-September.

Under the plans proposed by the German Football League (DFL) for the new season, which starts on September 18th, the clubs agreed on four key points.

All supporters would be required to sit down, no standing permitted, all tickets would be allocated to named individuals with no transfer so ticket holders could be traced, all alcohol at matches will be banned until October and there will be no away fans.

“The priority in Germany at the moment is not full stadiums, but people’s health,” said Christian Seifert, chief executive of the Bundesliga quoted by the Jarkarta Post

“When and how many spectators are allowed to return to the stadiums is not a decision for the DFL to make.”

Seifert says the rate of infection must be taken into account and “should by no means be underestimated”.

“Professional football can only return to normality in stages,” he added.

“We will have to regain normality in small steps. We cannot go from zero to 100.”

Borussia Dortmund who often have capacity crowds of 81,000 are planning to have up to 15,000 fans for home games next season which 18.5% of the normal capacity. Other clubs are suggesting figures between 10% and 15% of normal stadium capacity.

However, Seifert said even a figure of 10,000 at matches would be hard to justify with large events banned in Germany until October 31.  “Nobody at the DFL will require a specific number of fans,” he said.

Claret and Hugh says:

The Premier League will be closely following events in German with the Bundesliga used as the model and template for return to football across Europe back in June.  The German authorities are worried about a second spike in Europe and will not rush supporters back despite local protests of German fans complaining their human rights are being eroded.

Bundesliga clubs are proposing removing every other seat and every other row of seating in football stadiums to ensure social distancing of 1.5 metres in Germany. The costs to achieve that together with storage of removed seating are likely to outweigh the financial benefit of  bringing back a small proportion of supporters.

When everything is taken into account we could easily  find ourselves in an all or nothing approach where fans only return when all supporters can return safety.  Perhaps that would a fairest decision to make with all matches  broadcast live to peoples homes in the UK until the pandemic has passed or a vaccine is found.