Bundesliga resumption hangs in the balance after reports of 10 confirmed Covid-19 cases

The German football league (DFL) has reported that 10

people from clubs across the top two divisions have tested positive

for the coronavirus ahead of a crucial meeting on Wednesday which

could approve the resumption of the Bundesliga.

The DFL said the 10 came from 1,724 tests among players, coaching

staff and physiotherapists from 36 clubs. It said that the 10 people

were isolated immediately and will undergo quarantine measures

according to rules from local health authorities.

The testing, with a second round this week, is part of the DFL

concept to assure the Bundesliga can restart with matches behind

closed doors.

The DFL said that it has also agreed with the labour ministry that

all clubs will hold a training camp under quarantine conditions

before a potential restart later this month. However,  their hopes could have been undermined by Hertha Berlin attacker

Salomon Kalou, who posted a hastily deleted Facebook video which

showed team-mate Jordan Torunarigha giving a sample for a coronavirus

test and Kalou greeting team-mates by hand.

The DFL called the video "absolutely unacceptable" in a statement.

Bundesliga clubs have resumed team training this week after

undergoing tests for the virus. The league hopes to resume playing

behind closed doors some time this month.

On Wednesday German Chancellor Angela Merkel and state premiers will

again meet to discuss easing lockdown restrictions with the

possibility of resuming the Bundesliga again on the agenda.

Cologne said "the entire team, as well as the coaching and backroom

staff," underwent a second test for Covid-19 on Sunday and an

independent laboratory said they were all negative after three

positives were reported last week.

The three people at Cologne - later revealed to be two players and a

physiotherapist - went into quarantine after testing positive on

Friday.

Team training would continue, said Cologne, while bottom club

Paderborn started team training on Monday after their tests returned

negative.

The DFL confirmed a report in Kicker magazine which said

it recommended clubs do not publish results of their own tests but

that a central announcement would be made.

While some clubs have issued their own statements or confirmed media

reports, Augsburg, Borussia Moenchengladbach and RB Leipzig have not

released information.

As part of the DFL concept for a return to football, it will not be

automatically released to the media if a player tests positive for

the coronavirus.

The issue of whether players should have access to tests, while

apparently healthy, to enable them to work while members of the

general population do not, has been a controversial part of the plan.

The spokesman for German interior minister Horst Seehofer dismissed

the notion the Bundesliga was being "privileged" and broadly welcomed

the concept.

Cologne player Birger Verstraete questioned why the entire squad was

not put into quarantine after his club announced the positive tests

though later rowed back on his criticism.

But football lawyer Horst Kletke does not believe players could

legally refuse to play out of fear of infection should restrictions

be lifted and matches behind closed doors approved to complete the

season.

"If there is no contact ban or other restrictions which ban training

or playing, the work must be done," he told the Frankfurter

Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.

However, players could not be forced to live in quarantine when

healthy between matches. "Especially in this point the voluntary

acceptance and agreement is needed, in work contracts there is no

24/7 requirement."

Werder Bremen advisory board chief Marco Bode admitted that forcing

players to play was unrealistic even if legally possible.

"If we want to see games again in this Bundesliga season or in the

coming first half of next season, we need highly motivated

professionals who want to win in this situation just as much as

before," he told Radio Bremen.

"And you can't do that when you don't want to. From my point of view

we will never force anyone."