The German Football Federation DFB made the decision in a video-conference of its board on Friday, also leaving the dates of the yet to be played semi-finals open.

DFB president Fritz Keller said “we must first wait for the general official decisions and requirements” before finding a date for the final which would be played behind closed doors.

German football hopes to resume next month with the Bundesliga and second division, also behind closed doors, and complete the season by June 30. There are nine rounds left in the top flight.

But the third division season and that of the women’s top flight could possibly be abandoned. The DFB said it was planning an extraordinary assembly in due course. While the DFB board can decide on postponements and matches behind closed doors, only the assembly can prematurely end a season.

A task force by the DFB and German Football League (DFL) has created a concept for a restart which was on Thursday presented at the DFB assembly and is now also with health and state authorities.

German lockdown measures making play impossible apply until early May. Chancellor Angela Merkel and the leaders of the federal states are to decide on the next steps on April 30, which could also bring news for football.

Deputy government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer said that “sport is and remains part of the current deliberations.”

Lars Schaade, the vice president of Germany’s governmental agency for disease control and prevention – the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) meanwhile said it was not up to them to make a final decision on the concept.

“These are football professionals. It is their job, and so there is a concept that has been created by the workplace safety side,” he said.

Germany’s labour ministry meanwhile confirmed it was in talks with football authorities over the concept but that a final decision was also not up to them.

“Our aim is to find practicable solutions that are also widely accepted,” a spokeswoman said, speaking of “very first consideration at work level” and not a ministry position.

The ministry did not confirm a report from Der Spiegel news magazine that it was looking into making the wearing of face masks mandatory for players.

Such a measure is not in the DFB/DFL concept, and task force chair Tim Meyer told dpa it was never intended to be.

“The premise was: everything remains unchanged on the pitch,” Meyer said. “The spectators would no longer find football authentic. In my view, if players were to play with masks, that would be unacceptable.”

Meyer also said that one game should be played behind closed doors ahead of the restart as a test event.

“We will simulate all of the processes in a stadium because the devil is known to be in the details. Maybe we missed something,” he told dpa.

And in a video conference Friday, Meyer appealed to players, coaches and officials to strictly adhere to safety and hygiene regulations.

“The discipline of players, coaches and coaches is extremely important. If that isn’t the case the best concept can fail. It is a link that must work. I can only appeal to these groups to stick to it,” Meyer said.

The Association of German Cities in general and Moenchengladbach mayor Hans Wilhelm Reiners in particular voiced concerns that fans could congregate outside stadiums during matches, like at the Moenchengladbach v Cologne match in March and thus violate social distancing rules.

“The cities therefore consider it very important to take a closer look at the stadium surroundings,” the cities’ managing director Helmut Dedy told dpa.

“We need answers from the clubs on whether and how they want to prevent groups of fans from gathering outside the stadiums during the ghost games.”

Dagmar Freitag, the chair Germany’s parliamentary sports committee, also said that questions remain and doubted in Friday’s Rheinische Post paper whether a restart would be accepted by the public.

“Would the majority of the public accept that politicians may be willing to apply different standards to professional footballers than to ordinary people who must continue to live with contact bans?” she asked.

“The impression could prevail that professional football can succeed in claiming special rights.”