The Bundesliga Is Back. Why Isn’t the Premier League?

Fans of German culture experienced a massive surge to their morale this month as the Bundesliga returned to normality. Well, pseudo normality. With obvious social distancing measures in place, and the stadium is locked off to the public, the matches did get back underway, and the Bundesliga league was able to continue. 

However, this begs the question. If the Bundesliga returns in a reduced capacity, why isn’t the Premier League following suit? Well, there are a handful of different reasons why this is the case, so let’s explore them together. 

COVID-19: A Heavy Influencer

It’s fairly safe to say that one of the biggest reasons why people are ecstatic about the reopening of the Bundesliga is that it is one of the first major sporting events to do so. It’s miles ahead of a lot of competitors in terms of the fact that it can now get back up and running again, and matches can now be transmitted internationally and nationally.

However, one of the main influencing factors as to why people cannot go and see the matches, it’s the same reason why the Premier League hasn’t opened back up yet. COVID-19. 

Every country is operating on a different standard. The way in which people are dealing with this pandemic varies from one country to the next, everybody has a different death toll, everybody has a different set of admissions for cases, everybody is approaching lockdown a little bit differently. 

Germany – More Advantageous Position?

It is safe to say that Germany is in arguably more of an advantageous position in the UK when it comes to how they are dealing with coronavirus.

It’s a little known secret that the UK really dropped the ball when it came to the coronavirus. Despite the best attempts of the government to contain it and bring it down in recent months, at the start, very little was done. Coronavirus was a popular topic of discussion long before the first reported cases came into the UK. But, the initial strategy that was deployed by the UK to deal with the coronavirus was not a successful one. 

It was predicted and expected that 250,000 people are gonna catch the coronavirus within the first month if the government didn’t change its strategy, so it did and brought down a full lockdown with measures not seen in peacetime. However, the damage was done, and despite the UK as one of the worst suffering parts of the world in terms of the viral outbreak. They actually had the third highest number of deaths for quite some time globally.

Germany has arguably been better equipped to deal with the virus from the outset. They instigated lockdown measures quicker, they were more effective with it, and consequently, the number of cases and deaths that’s been going on is less. In terms of how many people have died, how many people had it, and how safe the country is, Germany is doing much better than the UK. 

Moving Forward

Hopefully, the Premier League may well restart soon. The Bundesliga has been active since the 16th of May, whereas the UK was only just past the peak of its viral infections at that point. Having recently moved down to level two and a five stage lockdown plan, with level one being as close to return to normality as possible, it is very likely that the UK will be able to get things going again shortly. 

However, it is too early to say with absolute certainty what will happen next. The government has to be sure that it will be safe to restart the Premier League and they want to make sure that you can have the best possible experience while being free from the coronavirus. They have to make sure they have adequate testing and tracing measures in place for players, match officials, TV crews filming it, and everybody else in between. It’s definitely a challenge to get right, but it is something that can be done with enough time and patience. 

Nobody can say for sure if Germany’s decision to restart the Bundesliga was a good idea or not. Only time will tell as to whether it has a positive or negative bearing on the number of coronavirus cases that we experience. However, it’s important to make sure that when it does happen each time, people are careful and they make sure to protect themselves and others. 

In conclusion, the number of steps that can be taken to reopen the Premier League in conjunction with the opening of all other major sporting events will depend entirely upon the circumstances of the country in question. The UK is not ready to reopen sporting events yet, even in the reduced capacity that we see in the Bundesliga operating in. Only time will tell as to whether the Bundesliga will be able to set the precedent for other sporting events, as the success of this experiment well heavily influenced the rest of the world. The fact that they have chosen to reopen first means that a lot of Europe and even places further abroad then will be watching to see if locking down the stadiums is the way forward. We can only hope that the Bundesliga will become a shining example of how to reopen following the COVID-19 pandemic, but there is no way to be sure