BERLIN (Reuters) – Markus Soeder, the premier of the German region of Bavaria, home to Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich, called on Tuesday for soccer matches to be played without fans again due to the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
Soeder said he hoped that in a meeting he is attending on Tuesday, German federal and regional officials would agree to stop fans from attending matches nationwide, but if that was not the consensus, Bavaria would go it alone and implement the step.
“Football matches should be without spectators again. Bavaria will do that,” Soeder said on Twitter, adding that allowing fans in stadiums is too dangerous at the moment as it encourages people to travel.
“Football has a great role model function. We must now reduce contacts everywhere.”
Bavaria, one Germany’s hardest hit regions in the new wave of coronavirus, last week introduced a rule that soccer stadiums – including the home of Bayern Munich – could only allow 25% capacity at matches.
Stadiums were only allowed to admit people who are vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19, and only if they could show a negative test.
Germany reported 45,753 new infections on Tuesday while another 388 deaths were recorded – the highest daily figure since early March which brought the overall death toll to 101,344.
(Reporting by Emma Thomasson; Editing by Rohith Nair)
