“We had no choice but to fight to get back very quickly.” The Bundesliga will be the first major championship to come to an end on Saturday since the post-coronavirus recovery, thanks to an unwavering resolve and the unity of the German football world.
When he presents the champion’s trophy to Bayern Munich, behind closed doors, at the end of the 34th day, the President of the League (DFL) Christian Seifert will definitely have won his daring bet launched in early May, a leap in the unknown at the time.
The DFL fought two battles head-on: that of health security, and that of public opinion, not very favorable at the start of this recovery.
Autopsy of a German success story:
Contrary to what happened in France for example, the 36 clubs of the German League (first and second division) immediately joined forces.
“We had the full support from the start of the big clubs, Bayern Munich and Dortmund, but also of the other clubs,” says Seifert: “It put me in a very strong position when I spoke to the managers political. ”
The arguments of the DFL were clear: “If we had stopped the season in mid-March, a third of our 36 clubs would have been in dire financial straits in six to eight weeks,” said the boss of the League, speaking recently in a forum, “we generate 56,000 jobs, it was worth fighting for”.
“We were very fast,” he congratulated himself, “we stopped the championship on March 14, and on the night of the 15th, I defined a work plan at home”.
“We started working on the 16th, making the first calls to put together a medical team capable of drafting a protocol for the recovery.”
At the end of April, the Bundesliga health “Konzept” (closed-door matches, massive tests and confinement of teams) was made public.
“From the start, we had zero tolerance for testing and contamination. We created a network of laboratories throughout Germany, with quasi-military logistics, to be sure that nothing would go wrong,” explains Mr. Seifert
Two types of opposition to the takeover appeared, internal and external.
Internally, the ultra-rigorous health protocol helped convince the most worried players that they would be safe in training and competition.
In addition, economic arguments quickly overcame the reluctance of a few clubs who would have welcomed the interruption of the season, to avoid relegation.
Externally, the problem was more difficult to manage, recognizes Mr. Seifert: “We have become a political issue. We had to fight against the + fake news + who said that we were diverting the tests and the means needed by the the medical profession, that we act without conscience, that we play when children were not allowed to play … it was very difficult to overcome these political reservations. ”
Again, the jobs argument was decisive. In Germany, a crazy football country, the DFL also argued that in the midst of the crisis, the resumption of the championship would offer a welcome derivative to support the morale of the population.
But football would have been blasted, says the boss of German professional football, if the players had not been disciplined: “These are young players who are used to being treated like superstars. Tell them for eight weeks what what they should do or not do “was a challenge, he admits after the fact.
“They understood. Without them, this would not have been possible,” he said.
Asked about the reasons for the success, Mr. Seifert first cites the favorable context in Germany, a country less affected than its neighbors by the pandemic.
“Honestly, we have had the big advantage of the German medical system and infrastructure, and the government, from my point of view, has handled the situation very well from the start,” he noted.
“I said to myself: ok, this is a difficult situation, but if we look at the figures, we have a good chance of going to the end of the championship,” said Seifert.
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