On Friday evening, for the first time since February 2020, I attended a Bundesliga match with supporters in the stadium.
The Borussia Park in Mönchengladbach was only half full, but the sight and sound of 22,925 Borussia Mönchengladbach supporters waving their scarves and flags and singing their club hymn "Die Elf vom Niederrhein" (the eleven from the Lower Rhine) ahead of their Bundesliga opener against Bayern Munich gave this neutral goosebumps.
And when Alassane Plea gave Gladbach the lead, the noise was deafening. Football, finally, was back. Well, half back. It was a step in the right direction, but it wasn't quite German football as I know it. Some key elements were still missing.
Restrictions remain
Behind the goal, the Nordkurve terrace, normally home to Gladbach's most vocal supporters, had been converted to seating and there were, technically, no away fans (although a couple of hundred Bayern fans had managed to snap up tickets).
What's more, all tickets were personalized for individual fans in order to facilitate contact tracing in the event of potential COVID-19 infections. This, more than anything, is what is kept the hardcore "Sottocultura" ultras away.
"Full fan culture only in full stadiums," they had reasoned in a statement, while insisting that they do recognize the unique situation. "As long as the current regulations on capacity limits, social distancing and personalized seats remain, a return to the stadium is not imaginable for us."
Lower demand
A glance at ticket sales across the league on the first weekend suggests that they're not alone. Despite reduced capacities and tickets going on general sale, tickets were still readily available for all games except Gladbach vs. Bayern as late as Friday afternoon.
Television viewing figures were also down. Sky Deutschland's multi-game "Konferenz" format attracted an average viewership of just 0.9 million, the lowest since September 2016, according to German media magazine DWDL. Even the prime-time evening game (Dortmund 5-2 Frankfurt) only averaged 810,000, down from the 1 million plus, which every comparable BVB game attracted last season.
DWDL blamed the warm summer weather for the comparable lack of interest. Personally, I would suggest the continuing restrictions are playing a role, severely reducing the attractivity of the spectacle both on television and in the stadium.
Stadiums are safer than ever
To be clear: the pandemic is not over yet, and the restrictions remain understandable – for now. But, eventually, a point must come at which they are no longer reasonably justifiable. When that will be remains unclear.
German aerosol expert Dr. Gerhard Scheuch told public radio station Deutschlandfunkin April this year that the risk of infection among fans wearing masks in stadiums is negligible. Rather, according to Dr. Scheuch, travel to and from the stadium poses a greater risk.
Even here, however, researchers at the Technical University of Berlin found in February that the "R number" among masked people using public transport was 0.8 – lower than one.
And anyway, more and more fans are getting vaccinated. As of this weekend, more than 57% of Germany's adult population have been double-vaccinated against coronavirus – and counting. Bundesliga clubs have played their part, setting up vaccination centers at their stadiums, encouraging fans to get vaccinated and offering incentives such as free stadium tours.
What's more, clubs are selling tickets according to the so-called "3G" principle – "Geimpfte, Genesene, Getestete" (vaccinated, recovered, tested negative). Some, such as Dortmund and Cologne, are going even further, and operating "2G" (vaccinated and recovered only).
The point is: visiting a football stadium, and indeed any outdoor event, is getting safer by the day but there is, as yet, no clear timetable for the full lifting of restrictions and return to full capacities.
'Never-ending loop of restrictions'
"The latest government guidance gives us little reason to hope that the Westfalenstadion and other stadiums will be completely full again any time soon," wrote Borussia Dortmund supporters from the "Südtribüne Dortmund" umbrella organization, pointing out that football leagues in Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, England and elsewhere in Europe have all returned to full capacity. "But it seems as if we've landed in a never-ending loop of restrictions."
Once again, with the pandemic not over yet, and with work still to do in terms of vaccinations, the restrictions in Germany continue to be understandable. But it can't remain that way forever, and we need to see that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
As the opening Bundesliga weekend has shown, German football needs its fans and its fan culture back as soon as possible.