The German Football League (DFL) has called off all weekend matches in the Bundesliga and second tier Bundesliga 2 and recommended that both leagues be suspended until 2 April, it said in a statement on Friday.
The decision was taken “in view of the dynamics of today’s events with new coronavirus infections and corresponding suspected cases directly related to the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2,” the statement said.
It said a general assembly would be held on Monday where it would recommend to the clubs the both leagues be put on hold until April 2.
Earlier the Bayern Munich midfielder Thiago Alcântara had hit out at the initial decision to play this weekend’s Bundesliga games, saying the situation was “crazy” . The Bundesliga had said earlier on Friday that the games scheduled for this weekend would go ahead behind closed doors.
Bayern were due to play Union Berlin on Saturday and the Spaniard criticised how the governing bodies has handled the situation, tweeting a reply to the German Football League: “irresponsible, imprudent! This is crazy. Please stop fooling around and land on reality. Let’s be honest, there are much more important priorities than sport.”
Uefa has postponed all of next week’s games in the Champions League and the Europa League while football in England, Spain and Italy has also been suspended. The DFL, however, initially said that all the games in the top two divisions would go ahead this weekend before being suspended until 2 April.
In the second tier, the Nürnberg player Fabian Nürnberger became the latest person to test positive for the virus, leading to the club putting every first-squad member in a quarantine for 14 days and cancelling the game against St Pauli.
