After a two month hiatus because of the coronavirus crisis, the Bundesliga returns on Saturday and Borussia Dortmund’s Marco Reus has sounded a warning ahead of his side’s game against Schalke.
With the whole of European football seemingly looking at how the German top-flight will deal with matters arising on the pitch, the pressure is on the players both to perform to the best of their abilities, and to give the other leagues hope that there is a way to still end the season by playing the remaining matches.
“I don’t think we can speak about normality and I don’t think we should either,” Reus said in an interview with El Pais and cited by the Daily Mail.
“We are hoping to save an industry that employs 55,000 people, but the supporters at home will know we still haven’t defeated the coronavirus and that we are far from normality.
“We cannot be complacent now. We all need to listen to the recommendations of the doctors and the politicians. We cannot be more clear about that. But if football can bring a bit of variety to people’s living rooms, then I’ll be happy.”
The question of whether football teams should be playing at all at the present time is one that appears to have proved very difficult to answer.
Whilst the pandemic remains virulent and a threat to life, the notion that football can bring back that ‘normality’ is a moot point, given that the players will, potentially, be putting themselves at risk for what amounts to a money saving exercise for each club.