Looking ahead to a year filled with major tournaments, among them the European Championship, the U21 Euros and the Olympic Games, Germany head coach Joachim Löw and Germany U21s boss Stefan Kuntz will return to stadiums in order to observe matches in person again. Löw will watch Borussia Mönchengladbach against Borussia Dortmund later this evening.
In the last few days, the DFB has been in touch with the Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL) to discuss allowing national team coaches stadium entry in its competitions. The DFL has asked clubs in the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga to, where possible, support this under the current conditions, with a view to preparing well for the upcoming tournaments, where there is a common goal of ensuring that German football is represented as strongly as possible on the international stage.
Löw: "Getting first-hand impressions"
"We are of course completely aware of how serious the coronavirus situation is. I assure you that we will be responsible, meticulous and extremely careful in sticking to all the hygiene guidelines and government rules, as the national teams have always done regardless,” said Joachim Löw.
"Everybody’s health is obviously the number one priority for us,” continued the Germany head coach, “but in a few weeks time we have some important international games as we start World Cup qualifying and continue to plan for the Euros. We now want to get some first-hand impressions from being in the stadiums, to go along with the extensive and detailed video analysis that we have carried out so far.”
Bierhoff: "Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the DFL and the clubs"
“Over the last year, Jogi Löw has dealt with the difficult situation extremely responsibly and with unbelievable care,” said Oliver Bierhoff. “He has taken interests from various parties into consideration and made a lot of compromises along the way. But with six months to go until the European Championship, it is now time for him and his coaches to get a feel for things live in the stadium. The same goes for Stefan Kuntz, who has two huge sporting occasions to prepare for this year, the U21 Euros and the Olympics. We want to continue to represent German football well in this important tournament year and we can only do that by standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the DFL and the clubs.”
As a safety precaution, the agreement is that the DFB coaches will travel alone to games and will also sit on their own during the match. Joachim Löw will also undergo the same testing as any other stadium visitor. Alongside Löw and U21 head coach Stefan Kuntz, the assistant managers for both sides will also go to games. So too will Thomas Schneider, head of scouting for the national team.