The Bundesliga announced on Monday that it would suspend all games until at least April 2, though few now believe that things will return to normal so soon.
Germany's ice hockey and basketball leagues have already cancelled their seasons altogether, and football is now involved in a furious debate as to how best to proceed.
Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke caused outrage on Sunday evening, when he appeared to relativise the dangers of the virus.
'We have to return to normal at some point, we shouldn't exaggerate it,' he said, adding that he didn't think there were 'serious health dangers' for footballers.
For Watzke, there is only one solution: the season will have to be played out behind closed doors.
At the moment, this is also the league's official position. Bundesliga CEO Christian Seifert admitted that the league was not insured against a pandemic, meaning they stood to lose millions in TV revenues if the season was cancelled entirely.
Games behind closed doors were now the 'only chance of survival' for many of the 18 Bundesliga clubs, said Seifert, while pointing out that the league provides tens of thousands of jobs.
Picoson
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For him players are just dollar signs anyway...[Sadtolook]
__arkopaul__
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he is not wrong..but the footballers can act as carriers and spread it to other vulnerable people