This archive report was first published on 17 June 2020.
On June 17, 2020, the German Football Association (DFB) had hoped to allow up to 1,000 fans into the Olympic Stadium in Berlin for the German Cup final on July 4.
However, the local Berlin government rejected the DFB's application, citing rules that prohibit gatherings of more than 1,000 people in the capital until August 31.
The Olympic Stadium has a capacity of 75,000, but all football matches have been played behind closed doors since the Bundesliga resumed in mid-May.
According to an official draft seen by AFP, Chancellor Angela Merkel's government wants to ban events with large crowds until at least the end of October due to fears of renewed coronavirus transmission.
However, football stadiums and other sports events could be subject to an exception and allowed to admit limited numbers of fans, but the subject is under discussion.
Even a small crowd of 1,000 fans in the Olympic Stadium would be too many, according to Hamburg-based virologist Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit.
“You have to limit the number of spectators,” Schmidt-Chanasit said. “I think a figure in the low three-digit range could definitely be implemented. The danger is that there will be ‘a superspreading’ at an event, where an unidentified infected person in the stadium can infect hundreds of people in those two hours.”
