SFlorian Naß has his first European Championship appearance on the first day of the football tournament on June 11th in the opening match between Turkey and Italy. No later than two days after his job in Rome, the 53-year-old ARD soccer reporter is said to be in Bucharest to comment on Austria versus North Macedonia. But whether this actually works in times of the pandemic with corona tests and quarantine regulations?
Not even four weeks before the start of the tournament in eleven countries there are still a lot of uncertainties and open questions for the TV stations. Who can and may be when, where and under what conditions? What are the restrictions now and which will apply during the course of the tournament?
“There is always a plan B,” said ARD-EM organizer Steffen Simon (56) of the German press agency: “We always plan in two directions.” Plan A means: “If it is feasible, we would like to comment from the stadium. As a commentator, you usually don’t see a lot of things that might be relevant because the cameras only ever show a section of what is happening. “
Plan B is: “If you can’t travel, comment from Cologne.” And that doesn’t work either because Naß or one of his two reporter colleagues Tom Bartels (55) and Gerd Gottlob (56) is stuck somewhere something like Plan C. In the EM headquarters in Cologne there are sufficiently experienced colleagues from the “Sportschau,” explained Simon. “If something happens to the commentators on site, we can provide a replacement at short notice.”
“Health is the top priority”
The procedure at ZDF is very similar. “I don’t send anyone to Wembley Stadium in London if they have to go into quarantine in England for ten days,” said sports director Thomas Fuhrmann (55). “The health of the employees has top priority, the next priority is broadcast security, and then come the quality criteria.”
He had to think about whether he could send someone to a stadium “in which there is an enormously high incidence all around,” said Fuhrmann. “If one of the colleagues is no longer allowed to travel and is no longer allowed to come to the headquarters, someone from the other commentators will take over.”
Commenting from the studio in Mainz is “the second best solution, but it is a solution,” said the ZDF sports director. He is therefore “happy that there is clarity in Munich in the two preliminary round matches of the German team that we are broadcasting. Our team of commentators is in the stadium. ”Béla Réthy (64) against France and Oliver Schmidt (49) against Hungary have their seats as well as ARD colleague Gottlob against Portugal – if they don’t get stuck somewhere on their European tour .
The uncertainty among commentators is a comparatively obvious problem created by the pandemic. But the unique pan-European character of this year’s edition of the EM presented the makers of the TV stations with major challenges.
“The tournament itself was the most demanding,” said ARD man Simon. “The idea of the continental event included that you have to deal with different legal frameworks: different entry regulations, different customs regulations, EU, non-EU.” That was already a demanding basic task and has become even more extreme due to the pandemic. “It is enormous what the team is doing and that it also manages to show the necessary calmness,” said Simon.
Can lessons be learned from the special conditions for future events? “I don’t think what we’re experiencing is transferable,” said Simon. But things would certainly have to be reassessed after Corona. His ZDF colleague Fuhrmann wants to “take calmness and pragmatism with him” from the situation. In his whole life he said “not as often as in the five months: ‘I don’t know how we’re going to do it at the moment. But we will find a solution. ‘”
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