Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder lets around 14,000 spectators into the arena in Munich for the European Championship games of the German national team. The DFB team’s first match against France will take place there on June 15th. “The EM is a special situation,” said Söder at a press conference after the meeting of his cabinet. The prerequisite is that all viewers have tested negative and wear a mask. Söder spoke of a stadium utilization of “up to 20 percent”. There is space for around 70,000 spectators in the arena.
The European Championship games in Munich could be a “pilot run” and a test run for other professional sports in Germany. They would make an “excellent test case”. The seven-day incidence across Bavaria fell to 29.0 on Friday, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
Find in Munich at the EM (June 11th to July 11th) the three group matches of the German national team will take place – after France it will be against defending champions Portugal (June 19) and outsider Hungary (June 23). In addition, a quarter-finals (2.7.) Is scheduled in the arena.
In other venues, more fans are sometimes allowed: in Amsterdam and Madrid, for example, a third of the seats can be occupied. Bilbao and Dublin, on the other hand, had to forego games because they couldn’t guarantee that enough fans would be allowed into the stadium. Instead, the games take place in Seville, Russia’s St. Petersburg and London.
The European Football Union (Uefa) had confirmed the Bavarian capital as co-host of the European Championship at the end of April, but the question of viewers remained controversial. The association demanded a guarantee from Munich that the games could be played in front of fans. EM games with fans in Munich “could give us back a certain normality,” said DFB organizer Philipp Lahm.
The EM was actually planned for 2020, but was postponed for a year due to the pandemic. In total, games are scheduled in eleven cities across Europe.
The state government did not give this assurance at the time. “Everything is subject to the pandemic situation,” State Chancellor Florian Herrmann (CSU) emphasized.
Söder also announced that the disaster in Bavaria will be lifted from Monday. Corona is not over, but the situation has changed significantly. The motto is more normality, but still with caution. The sanctuary is therefore easing the corona restrictions noticeably from next week. More people are likely to meet again in the future, and significantly more guests are allowed at private events such as weddings, said Söder. Up to 500 people are allowed to take part in outdoor sports or cultural events. “It’s time to create more opportunities with falling incidences and rising vaccinations.”
“The third wave is slowly coming to an end. It’s time for more freedom, ”said Söder. “Vaccination saves life.”
