Germany’s plans to finish the league season haven’t changed despite Dynamo Dresden being put in a two-week lockdown, says Football League (DFL) chief Christian Seifert.
With the Bundesliga and 2.Bundesliga both resuming on May 16, the scale of the challenge has been made clear by events in Dresden.
After two players without symptoms tested positive for coronavirus, the entire first-team squad returned to lockdown, meaning they are unable to fulfil their scheduled fixtures against Hannover and Greuther Furth.
"I found out about it this afternoon,” Seifert told ZDF. “It is precisely the idea that corona cases will be forwarded to the health department and they will then talk about the appropriate measures, and we have already said that we have to prepare for this.
“I have not spoken to any responsible person. It’s 14 days in quarantine and then we’ll have to see how we’re going to run the Dynamo Dresden games next week."
Seifert said clubs would abide by the advice given by medical experts, but that plans to finish the season would not change for the time being.
"The medical experts followed the recommendations of the Robert Koch Institute,” he explained. “And the sports ministers also advocated that quarantine should be announced in the event of positive cases. We always said: this is decided by the local health authorities.
“At the moment I wish it could have gone differently, of course, but it was clear that this could happen. For the second division it means that two games will be cancelled at the moment, but we are not changing the goal, the only plan is still to finish the season.
“It does not yet mean that the 2.Bundesliga cannot continue, because only two games have been affected so far, but it is clear that, if it happens enough, it would no longer be possible to end the season.”
Some have pointed out that clubs going into lockdown at different times in the event of positive tests will lead to an uneven playing field, even if the season isn’t totally waylaid once more.
Teams are training together ahead of their return to match action in two weeks but Dynamo will be unable to do so, while their opponents are left without a fixture.