A vaccination requirement in professional football? Markus Söder fueled the heated debate – and thus triggered some violent reactions.
Frankfurt / Main (SID) Markus Söder only needed a few words to give new impetus to the heated vaccination debate in professional football. A vaccination requirement for footballers? This is exactly what the Bavarian Prime Minister is toying with and caused a stir after the discussions about Joshua Kimmich and other unvaccinated professionals. But the CSU boss immediately met violent reactions.
“Why do I think politicians are great? Because they always turn it how they want it. I don’t even know how often Mr. Söder has changed his mind,” rumbled Steffen Baumgart. Once on the move, the 1. FC Köln coach continued to grumble: “Why should players have to be vaccinated if we can’t even manage to introduce mandatory vaccinations for nursing staff who work on people every day?”
Söder had previously contacted via image-TV pronounced “for compulsory vaccination for certain occupational groups”. From his point of view, it would be “a good signal that we are discussing something like this for the football sector as well – as a signal for the unity of fans and players”. It is a move that obviously does not meet with approval from everyone.
According to the German Football League (DFL), the vaccination rate in the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga is more than 90 percent – and thus well above the value for the entire population in Germany. Söder rushes forward in a situation in which the fourth corona wave is breaking through the country, the vaccination campaign is stalling and more and more federal states are introducing 2G rules even before the consultations on Thursday – also for football fans.
“I am a clear advocate for 2G – for all players in football, for everyone,” said DFL board member Oke Göttlich from FC St. Pauli to NDR. In Cologne, for example, the regulation only applies to spectators. Also in Munich, where it could soon happen in the Allianz Arena that only those who have been vaccinated and recovered are allowed to go to the stands to cheer the unvaccinated Kimmich from there.
Kahn: Conviction that our players have to be vaccinated “
Another curious situation threatens Bayern Munich before the Bundesliga game at FC Augsburg on Friday (8.30 p.m.). Since the 2G rule applies in restaurants and hotels in Bavaria, the as yet unvaccinated Bayern professionals are not allowed to go to the hotel where the team is preparing for the game. There will be no exception, shared a hotel employee tz-Inquiry with.
Board boss Oliver Kahn had recently made the attitude of the association clear. “It is our absolute belief that our players need to be vaccinated,” he said. As a reminder: Karl-Heinz Rummenigge even advocated that football professionals could be vaccination role models in February.
In handball or basketball, the vaccination rates are almost 100 percent even without compulsory – a little higher than in football. The DFL wants to work with the clubs “in any case with full commitment to a further increase in the vaccination rate – in football and in society”, said league boss Christian Seifert and made a swipe in the direction of Söder.
In this pandemic situation, “practicable solutions and implementable concepts are needed. We have heard enough ideas in the last twelve months,” said the DFL boss, but announced: “If politics creates the legal possibilities for compulsory vaccination in certain professional groups , the DFL will of course immediately and intensively discuss such an option. “
