Germany

The Bundesliga season will restart on May 16 after a suspension of more than two months, the German Football League (DFL) said on Thursday, becoming the first European league to resume amid the coronavirus epidemic. 

The DFL said the season would restart under the terms of a strict health protocol that bans fans from the stadium, with six games on Saturday, including the high-profile Ruhr valley derby between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04. 

BERLIN — Germany's Bundesliga is set to be given the green light for a restart, probably from May 15, as part of measures to further ease the country's coronavirus regulations, two people familiar with the preparations told Reuters.

The Bundesliga would be the first of the five major European domestic soccer leagues to resume play after a stoppage which has seen almost all football put on hold around the world since mid-March.

If the Bundesliga ever returns, Hertha Berlin’s Salomon Kalou will have to wait even longer after the club suspended him for violating strict social distancing guidelines on Monday.

The Ivory Coast forward posted a Facebook livestream video showing him breaking numerous rules, including shaking hands, fist bumping teammates, bursting into a room while some one was apparently being tested and, overall, just being a complete moron.

Ten people have tested positive for coronavirus in more than 1,700 tests carried out by Germany's professional soccer league (DFL) at its 36 clubs ahead a planned resumption of full training, it said on Monday. 

The DFL, which tested players and coaching staff at the Bundesliga and 2.Bundesliga teams, did not identify those who had tested positive or their clubs and said the cases had been reported to health authorities. 

German top-flight soccer team FC Cologne said on Friday that group training was continuing despite three people at the club testing positive for COVID-19.

In a statement the Bundesliga side said the entire squad and coaching staff had been tested on Thursday.

"Three people tested positive, all are symptom free," the club statement said. "After an assessment of the cases by the responsible health authorities, the three people who tested positive will go into a 14-day quarantine at home."

It would be easy to write off Erling Håland as just a beefy striker bro. But the more media attention he receives, the more you realize he’s a thoughtful kid who is living his dream.

Håland is one of Europe’s most precocious strikers. At 19, he’s torn up the Champions League and two different Bundesligas this season (he moved from Salzburg to Dortmund in January) with an astonishing 40 goals in 33 appearances. 

The resumption of training in Germany's Bundesliga proved to be bad news for United States men's national team goalkeeper Zack Steffen, who injured a knee not long after getting back on the field.

Steffen, who plays for Fortuna Dusseldorf, was training in a small group, as was permitted, when he came away with an "inner ligament injury," according to the team. The 25-year-old is expected to miss four to six weeks of action.

FIFA has proposed that teams should be allowed to make up to five substitutions per match, instead of the usual three, as a temporary measure to help cope with potential fixture congestion in the aftermath of the novel coronavirus outbreak. 

Football has been at a standstill since mid-March but many leagues and federations are still hoping to complete the season but to do so they would have to cram fixtures into a shorter period than usual once play re-starts.

Last month's Rhine Derby between Borussia Monchengladbach and FC Koln should've been a high-spirited event. Instead, it was played in an eerily quiet, empty stadium as the Bundesliga played out its first game behind closed doors as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Now, the DFB (German FA) says playing in empty stadiums is the only way the competition could resume next month.

Of Europe’s top five leagues, Germany’s Bundesliga remains on course to be the first to return to the pitch. All clubs have resumed training in small groups, and the league still expects to return on Saturday, May 9. 

However, Bundesliga chief executive Christian Seifert recently told the New York Times that although matches in the top two tiers would resume at the beginning of May, all the games would be played behind closed doors — a measure that’ll likely last through the remainder of the season.