As German football gets set to return to the field on May 16, as agreed by German football chiefs last week after two-month suspension due to coronavirus outbreak, Uwe Rosler, Fortuna Dusseldorf manager, has given what could be called extreme measures in place for Bundesliga clubs.
German clubs are getting ready to get back to the 2019/2020 Bundesliga campaign. They have been given guidelines on how to ensure their health and safety.
Rosler’s Fortuna Dusseldorf team would play against Paderborn on Saturday over a relegation struggle.
According Rosler, the measures would include managers-players limited contacts, teams using three dressing rooms to get changed, and use of multiple buses to convey teams to the locked down stadiums.
“At the moment we can fly, but we need a plane with at least 100 seats. When we travel by bus, we need at least two buses, maybe three buses,” Rosler said.
“In the dressing room the restrictions are crazy; I have to take a lot of distance to the players, the players have to change in three dressing rooms,” he added.
Rosler disclosed that they have been training for about nine weeks observing the guidelines the League has given them.
“We’ve been training now for the last nine weeks under the conditions the football league gave us.”
“Only since last Thursday has there been any contract and 11 vs 11, so general fitness is up… but match fitness? I’m not sure,” said Rosler.
He also hinted on how the teams are being conducted and sorts of training being given as they adhere to the rules of football and the League’s guidelines.
“When you start off only having groups of two, moving up to ten. Since last week we’ve only been allowed to have the whole team on the pitch; it was nearly impossible, we worked on detail, we worked on fitness, we worked on technique.
“We played many games without any contact, pattern of play, so it’s a lot of tactical things but football is all about the duelling, the intensity and winning the ball, attacking and defending, and obviously that we couldn’t replicate,” he added.
While speaking about measures in place for his side this week, Rosler explained that, “Every three or four days we get another 30-40 pages of new developments, new information about the virus. Things have changed day to day.
However, Rosler admitted that the measures are quite rigorous and are not as normal ways of getting things done.
“It’s very, very difficult. It’s not normal. The only normality we have at the moment, I feel, is when we cross that white line and we can forget about all these troubles and just play football,” Rosler concluded.
