The Champions League should NOT be played this season, says Borussia Dortmund chief Michael Zorc as coronavirus rates continue to rise across Europe
- Borussia Dortmund chief Michael Zorc raised concerns over European matches
- He says Champions League and Europa League games are not safe to take place
- Zorc warned travelling to high-risk areas could disrupt domestic league seasons
Champions League and Europa League matches are not safe to take place under the current circumstances of the coronavirus pandemic.
That’s according to Borussia Dortmund director Michael Zorc who has raised concerns about the domestic seasons continuing if clubs are forced to travel to high-risk areas.
Last season’s Champions League was completed in Portugal while Germany hosted the remainder of the Europa League but UEFA are set to make the group stage draws on Thursday and Friday.
The safety of Champions League and Europa League group games have been questioned
Borussia Dortmund director Michael Zorc raised concerns over the rising coronavirus rate
‘Really, we are still missing the legal requirements to be able to play these games at all,’ Zorc told the Frankfurter Allegemine.
‘If we play in a high-risk area on the Wednesday, which will probably be the case in more than half of the major cities involved, then there needs to be some foundations in place so that we can play in the Bundesliga again on Saturday.’
Matches in the Premier League and LaLiga are still being played behind closed doors but some European leagues have had a small number of supporters in stadiums.
Last week’s UEFA Super Cup between Bayern Munich and Sevilla took place with 20,000 fans
The game was played in Budapest despite the Hungarian city having a high infection rate
Last week’s UEFA Super Cup between Bayern Munich and Sevilla took place in front of 20,000 fans in Budapest, despite there being a high number of infections in the Hungarian capital.
German authorities warned Bayern fans they would be walking into a ‘biological bomb’ with the Bundesliga side returning two-thirds of their ticket allocation.
Zorc is not convinced it is safe for clubs to play the group stage matches under the current rising coronavirus rate.
UEFA’s website currently says ‘games are taking place behind closed doors until further notice’ with the Champions League group stage set to run from October 20 to December 9 and the Europa League from October 22 to December 10.
