The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has had a huge impact on sports all over the world and the Bundesliga is no different. Football across the world has come to a standstill, with leagues being suspended to adhere with government guidelines relating to public gatherings, and the Bundesliga is currently suspended, with most teams having played 25 games of the 34-game season.
With games not being played at the moment, clubs are losing out on significant revenue, be it matchday revenue, television income, or commercial opportunities. While some of the bigger clubs may be able to absorb some of these losses, clubs lower down the league have already started to feel the bite. As an example, players and staff at Bundesliga sides Union Berlin, Borussia Monchengladbach, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich have already agreed to forego some or all of their salaries, in order to help the clubs meet running costs and pay some of the more vulnerable members of their staff.
The Bundesliga clubs participating in the UEFA Champions League this season – Bayern, Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen and RB Leipzig, have also come together to contribute 20 million euros as a solidarity campaign to support Bundesliga and 2.Bundesliga sides that are being adversely hit by the current shutdown. Christian Seifert, the chief executive of the German Football League (DFL), which manages the Bundesliga and 2.Bundesliga, has warned that multiple clubs could go bankrupt if the shutdown continues for much longer. Player wage cuts will only be able to help for some time, with tens of thousands of jobs at stake.
The current coronavirus-led shutdown in football could end up altering the landscape of German football, with some clubs possibly ceasing to exist. Solidarity measures by the bigger clubs, like the one already mentioned, will help to some extent, but at the end of the day, football clubs need football to survive.
