BUNGLING Bundesliga officials have backtracked and cancelled this weekend’s fixtures just hours after they announced their intention to carry on.
The German league released a statement on Friday afternoon saying the suspension would take place with immediate effect.
Bundesliga have cancelled games this weekend after initially planning to play them behind closed doorsCredit: EPA
Bayern Munich star Thiago Alcantara slammed the initial decision on Friday morning to play this weekend’s games
That came just hours after they announced they would play this weekend’s games behind closed doors before the suspension kicked in.
Their statement on Friday morning said a suspension would come into place from 17 March until 2 April, allowing this weekend’s fixtures to take place.
But hours later they backtracked and suspended their league with immediate effect after a backlash.
Bayern Munich star Thiago Alcantara slammed the decision to play this weekend’s matches, calling the decision “irresponsible” and saying “this is crazy”.
In a tweet he later deleted, Thiago said: “This is crazy. Please stop fooling around and land on reality. Let’s be honest, there are much more important priorities than sport.”
German officials then took the decision on Friday afternoon to call their fixtures off, just hours before the weekend was set to begin with Fortuna Dusseldorf against Paderborn.
Bayern Munich and other German clubs will be on lockdown for a few weeksCredit: Getty Images – Getty
The Bundesliga is the last of the top European leagues to suspend play with the Premier League and Ligue 1 taking the decision earlier on Friday.
They join Italy’s Serie A and Spain’s La Liga, who both already decided to call a halt to games as the world struggles to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
UEFA also announced on Friday that next week’s Champions League and Europa League fixtures would be postponed.
European football’s governing body are set to meet on Tuesday to decide the fate of the competitions as well as Euro 2020.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
