Germany’s plans to restart competitive soccer on Saturday suffered an early setback after the entire team of second-tier Dynamo Dresden were placed in a two-week quarantine after two players tested positive for COVID-19.
The Bundesliga side announced on their Web site that tests taken on Friday had shown two new positive cases and local health authorities had ordered the team into quarantine.
“After an intensive analysis of the situation, the health authority in Dresden ... decided on Saturday that the entire second-division squad, including the coaching and support team, must now go into a 14-day quarantine at home,” the club said. “Due to the quarantine measures, [the club] will not be able to travel to Lower Saxony for the away game on match day 26 as planned.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
Dynamo Dresden were scheduled to play Hannover 96 on Sunday next week in their first game back, following the stoppage that was caused by the coronavirus lockdown.
“In the past few weeks, we have made an enormous effort in terms of personnel and logistics to strictly implement all of the prescribed medical and hygienic measures,” Dynamo sports manager Ralf Minge said. “We are in contact with the responsible health authority and the DFL [German Football League] to coordinate all further steps. The fact is that we can neither train nor participate in games over the next 14 days.”
The league this week announced that it would restart on Saturday after being given the green light by the government.
The league has drawn up a detailed set of regulations for training and matches to reduce to a minimum the risk of transmitting the virus, including stringent testing.
However, the question of how to respond to positive tests is out of the hands of the league, as German law states that any response to cases is a matter for local health authorities.
DFL chief executive Christian Seifert told broadcaster ZDF that the aim is still to finish the season.
“We said from the beginning that this was something we needed to be prepared for. If a 14-day quarantine is now scheduled, then we have to deal with it next week in the spirit of the game plan,” Seifert said. “At the moment, however, this does not upset our timetable. The DFL has been working on this concept for a long time and we have always stressed that it is the local health authorities that decide on each individual case, on each team.”
“For the second division, where 81 matches are still to be played, two of Dynamo Dresden’s matches cannot be played at the moment, but we are not changing our goal of finishing the season,” he added.
The league has been on hold since the middle of March because of the coronavirus, which has brought soccer to a standstill around the world. Germany’s progress in resuming its soccer season is being closely watched by other leagues.
The DFL on Monday said that it had registered 10 positive cases in a blanket test of 1,724 players and staff at its 36 first and second-division clubs.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but