Bundesliga players told to celebrate with elbows or feet

Bundesliga footballers will only be allowed to celebrate with “brief elbow or foot contact” when the German football top flight resumes on May 16 following the coronavirus hiatus, Bild newspaper reported on Saturday.

High fives, hugging and spitting should be avoided, the report said, citing an internal German Football League (DFL) document.

There will be no child mascots, no handshakes, no team photos and squads will come out of the tunnel at different times.

The report said the DFL document also requests that everyone on the bench wears a mask and that seats are left empty in between each person.

“The coach may remove the nose and mouth mask to call out instructions, as long as he keeps a minimum distance of 1.5 metres from all other people,” Bild quoted the document as saying.

Time spent in the dressing room should be “limited to a necessary minimum”, the paper adds, meaning “30 to 40 minutes” for each individual.

The DFL could not be reach for comment.

Source: dpa