Germany’s Bundesliga to resume on May 16

Germany’s top-flight football league, the Bundesliga, will resume on May 16 after it was halted due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

The country’s second-tier club competition, the 2Bundesliga will also resume on the same date.

This was ratified by the German football association (DFL) on Thursday (May 7) as football returned to the calendar on the back of Covid-19 lockdowns.

Both competitions were indefinitely postponed in mid-February but German Chancellor Angela Merkel confirmed on Wednesday (May 6) that the competitions could resume this month.

It means that the Bundesliga will become the first major league in Europe to return to competition with the first set of games to be decided on May 16.

The restart plan outlined by DFL president Christian Seifert involves six games taking place on the opening Saturday, with Borussia Dortmund’s derby with Schalke among them. Defending champions Bayern Munich will be back in action a day later, as they take in a trip to Union Berlin.

The latest round of matches in the German top-flight will be completed on Monday May 18, when Werder Bremen play host to Bayer Leverkusen. The final matchday of the 2019-20 campaign is scheduled for the weekend of June 27-28. As a result, the league will return for the 26th match day of the season with nine sets of fixtures still remaining for this campaign.

Following the conclusion of Wednesday’s meeting the German government released the following statement:

“The Federal Chancellor and the heads of government of the federal states consider the continuation of play in the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga to be justifiable for the 36 clubs eligible to start there at their expense from the second half of May.