Future of German amateur football unclear

Normality is a foreign concept right now. 

Things don't even look normal on the Facebook page of FC Hennef 05, league leaders in the Middle Rhine League (fifth division). Instead of goals, victories and defeats, one post is dedicated to partners who have offered support during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Another included the video with local music star Björn Heuser, who normally sings at 1. FC Köln home games. The title of the post was "Second week of lockdown, but we won't let it get us down." A statement that, at present, could act as a suitable slogan for amateur football in Germany.

With the sport at a standstill, games and training have been canceled involving everyone from youth sides to the first team. The measures put in place by the government currently make team training impossible.

"This is a catastrophe for our children and young people," Michael Pütz, head of the youth center at Hennef, told newspaper "Rhein-Sieg-Anzeiger".

Pütz has called for a rethink of the policy regarding training opportunities.

"The changing rooms could remain closed and if necessary we would offer contactless training again - just like at the beginning of the pandemic."

No games until March?

A willingness to compromise is omnipresent among clubs as their first priority remains to avoid a standstill that threatens thousands of amateur teams – Hennef included.

This was also the case in Berlin with SV Tasmania, the successor club to the famous SC Tasmania 1900 Berlin, owners of the worst-ever Bundesliga record after being relegated with just eight points and a goal ratio of 15 to 108 in the 1965-66 Bundesliga season.

"Our first team is currently in privately organized individual training," club chairman Almir Numic said. 

"We are doing well in Germany compared to other countries. None of us are happy with the situation, but we have to accept and deal with it."

Numic, an entrepreneur who runs a cleaning company full-time in Berlin, became club chairman in spring 2020. From the very beginning, he has pushed to take the club forwards, changing the coaching team, creating new youth teams, and refurbishing the stadium.

Things were also going in the right direction on the pitch. Tasmania currently lead the NOFV Oberliga Nord (fifth division) and were looking forward to a top-of-the-table clash with FC Greifswald when 'lockdown light' brought everything to a grinding halt until at least the beginning of December.

"We hope that we can play again soon. But realistically, I don't see us playing again until mid-March. That would be a big challenge for us, but letting everyone down is not an option. We've done far too much to avoid that over the last ten months at the club," said Numic.

Despite a lack of income and virtually unchanged costs, clubs are still looking at how they can create their own opportunities before seeking help from the political arena. "We are working on setting up a campaign with virtual tickets that will bring in revenue," explained Numic. 

Nevertheless, Tasmania are also looking at an uncertain future, even if the club from the capital is still relatively well positioned.

"It would help us a lot if, at least the fixed costs, were covered by the state," said Numic.

Waiving salaries isn't on the table yet - for players or other employees. "My team is holding its own and they understand that we have to do something about this pandemic, although football outdoors has had little to do with infections so far."

Hope for season remains

Michael Pütz of FC Hennef 05 "has no objection at all" to the game currently being suspended, and even considers the measures "necessary in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic." What does alarm him is the ban on training.

Tasmania board member Almir Numic would also like to see a gradual return to normality. 

"We have made a good start, I don't want to get promoted courtesy of a match formula and, if we aren't able to play the whole season, I would like us to be able to at least play the first half of the season."

The regional federation still believes there's a long way to go before the season is broken off completely.

"Despite the enormous demands on the clubs, there are still more than seven months to go until June 30," said Johannes Fritschen of the Nordostdeutscher Fußballverband (NOFV). Like other regional associations, the NOFV is working to ensure that training operations are allowed to continue during the partial lockdown.  

Purses under pressure

When football was being played, Düren were reveling in two of the greatest games in club history. In last season's local cup competition final, the underdog defeated former Bundesliga team Alemannia Aachen 1-0, sealing them a spot in the first round of the German Cup.

Making their debut in the competition, the minnows delighted in a dream tie against Bayern Munich. For the club, which was only founded in 2017, the biggest game in history resulted in a 3-0 loss to the record titleholders despite a respectable performance. The TV revenue from the game, which was broadcast live by German broadcaster ARD, were an unexpected financial gain for the fifth-tier club.

Not even the additional revenues have been enough to compensate the losses, though. "That is only a fraction of the budget," said Dirk Ruhrig, sports director at Düren. "It alone cannot compensate for the loss of a season."

Nevertheless, according to Ruhrig, the club's existence would not be threatened even in the case of a complete cancellation. That's also down to the savings from salary cuts that have been made since the enforced interruption. Ruhrig believes that the situation is not "dramatic" for Düren, or for amateur football as a whole.

States demand unbureaucratic help 

The situation is serious though. In order to secure the continued existence of amateur football in the long term, politicians want to introduce further measures. The sports ministers of Germany's 16 federal states recently called on the federal government to make the extraordinary economic aid developed in November for companies, also available for sport without bogging them down in bureaucracy.

"The pandemic demands a lot from clubs at all levels, for some it represents a threat to their existence," said Roger Lewentz (SPD), Minister of Sport and the Interior of Rhineland-Palatinate, at the 44th Conference of Sports Ministers (SMK) last week. 

Even with talk of the "unbureaucratic assistance" that amateur football needs, a resumption of the game this year seems unrealistic for amateur clubs at present. The consensus, meanwhile, seems to be that a quick return to training and financial aid are necessary for the amateur level to survive.