The Bundesliga have announced they will restart the season on May 16.
After being given then green light by the German government to return, the top two tiers have decided to return at the earliest possible opportunity.
Games for the 2019-20 season will be finished on June 27, which falls in line with player contracts running out on July 1.
The Bundesliga is the only one of Europe’s top five leagues to restart during the coronavirus pandemic and La Liga, Serie A and the Premier League will be watching on very closely to see how it all goes.
With players being tested once a week, strict protocols around social distancing in training and games being played with a maximum of 322 people in stadiums, the Bundesliga are doing everything possible to protect their players and staff.
DFL CEO Christian Siefert paid tribute to Germany’s politicians and healthcare system amid revealing the Bundesliga plans.
“We have the privilege to live in a country with one of the best health systems in the world and can be thankful.”
Clubs from across Germany’s top two tiers have been training for weeks and last week over 1700 tests were performed on players and staff at training grounds with 10 positive tests coming back.
Germany have managed to control the COVID-19 outbreak extremely well with 150,000 cases reported across the country and 6,300 deaths confirmed. Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom have all recorded close to or just over 30,000 deaths each.
When the action kicks back off on Saturday there will have been a two-month break between when the Bundesliga was suspended on March 13 and returned on May 16. All things considered, that is very good going.
Most of the Bundesliga clubs have nine matches left, with two having 10 to play following the mid-March suspension of the league due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Bayern Munich will kickstart their bid to defend its title from Borussia Dortmund (four points back), RB Leipzig (five points), and Borussia Monchengladbach.
The bottom of the table is less congested, though even last-place Paderborn has hope of at least reaching the relegation playoff spot.
Below is the schedule in full for this weekend and we will have plenty of action and analysis live on ProSoccerTalk right here as one of the top leagues in the world returns to action.
Saturday, May 16
9:30 a.m. ET: Augusburg v. Wolfsburg
9:30 a.m. ET: Hoffenheim v. Hertha Berlin
9:30 a.m. ET: RB Leipzig v. Freiburg
9:30 a.m. ET: Borussia Dortmund v. Schalke
9:30 a.m. ET: Fortuna Dusseldorf v. Paderborn
12:30 p.m. ET: Eintracht Frankfurt v. Borussia Monchengladbach
