Frankfurt Universe has decided not to participate in a possible season in the German Football League (GFL). The deadline for the first and second division clubs ended on Friday, before which they could decide whether or not they would take part in a substitute game to be played under pandemic conditions. Universe decided to use the so-called “exit option”. The management of Frankfurt Universe Betriebs-GmbH made this decision after intensive consultation together with the board of the parent association AFC Universe Frankfurt e. V. met and submitted to the American Football Association Germany (AFVD), the club said on Friday.
The Frankfurt reason cites the health of the team and the potential visitors in the stadium on the Bornheimer Hang as the most important reason for their step. “In the still highly dynamic situation, we cannot ensure that we can carry out a possible game operation with a reasonably acceptable health risk for everyone involved,” said Alexander Korosek, Managing Director of Universe.
Another argument for not starting in the GFL was the different training conditions of the first division teams. According to the latest decision of the state government of Hesse, Universe will be able to train under full contact conditions again from August. Teams in other federal states could do this much longer, said Korosek, whose club sees this as a distortion of competition.
In addition, there were also economic reasons for not starting. At the moment, only a fraction of the previous spectator capacity in the stadium on Bornheimer Hang can be used at significantly higher costs, said Korosek. Since several fans had already bought season tickets for the upcoming season very early, the Universe boss points out that “no season ticket holder has to fear losing his money.”
The decision to not participate in the league was “without alternative” for Universe, the club said. Now the club wants to concentrate on the 2021 season to make the dream of participating in the final in the Frankfurt World Cup arena come true. “We will start today to prepare for 2021 and hopefully then reach our big goal,” said Korosek.
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