Dortmund chief: Behind closed door games are becoming ‘depressing’

Berlin (dpa) – Borussia Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke has lamented the continued need to play Bundesliga games behind closed doors because of the coronavirus pandemic.

He accepts the reasons for the empty stands but still finds the situation soulless, with the German government and states highly unlikely to relax the ban on fans during their video conference on Tuesday.

“The atmosphere is depressing me more and more every month,” he told Kicker magazine on Monday.

“Now you sit in this sterile atmosphere. With distance, with masks. Horrible.”

During an improvement in Germany’s Covid-19 situation a few months ago, some fans were allowed in to Dortmund games. But cases are now continually high again.

“When we had around 10,000 spectators in the stadium against Gladbach and Freiburg, I had tears in my eyes from joy – and so did many others,” Watzke added.

The economic fall-out from the crisis will take some time to become apparent, according to Watzke, but the lack of spectator revenue means the Black and Yellows’ hopes of rivalling the mega clubs in Europe “are over for the time being.”

At least television is bringing in money and keeping fans entertained, ever since the Bundesliga resumed behind closed doors in May following a coronavirus hiatus.

“The TV ratings show more and more that football can at least give people a little distraction and joy in these difficult times,” he said.

Quite when fans will be permitted into Bundesliga stadiums again is unclear with a general lockdown in place.

Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc said he “secretly” was hoping spectators could return in April, “but that is pure speculation, it is not substantiated.”

Any fan return before April is seen as highly unlikely.

“We very quickly corrected our initial calculation in the autumn due to developments and currently assume that we will have no spectators in January, February and March,” Cologne’s finance director Alexander Wehrle told Bild.