Frankfurt Chairman calls fan exclusion "legally contestable"
In a lengthy interview appearing the the Monday edition of German footballing magazine Kicker, Eintracht Frankfurt CEO Axel Hellman reiterated his opposition to the recent month-long ban on fans and hinted that legal action might be forthcoming.
"Thanks to feedback from our local health department and the head of public health at the Frankfurt University hospital, we know that there has not been a single case of infection among those visitors to our stadium," Hellman insisted, "We know that a visit to the stadium doesn't pose a danger beyond the general risk."
The Frankfurt boss railed against officials taking the wrong public policy path in the interesting of "sending symbolic signals" and referenced the club's highly detailed 33-page-hygiene concept as a prime example of the type of scientific work public officials should be embracing.
"It's the job of politicians and administrators to assess this correctly," he continued, "for months we've known what the real drivers of this pandemic are. Private parties in enclosed rooms with no viable contact tracing options [spread the virus]. What we need is better focus by politicians and administrators to back those measures that strengthen social and economic life and intervene where the real problems are."
Hellman's eloquence did not include a notion of how the government might focus better on the "real problems". He nevertheless stressed that public life needed to serve as the first priority of those lawmakers seeking to combat the pandemic in the Bundesrepublik.
"We must find ways of dealing with the situation at an acceptable risk level right now," he asserted, "We cannot wait around another year or two for a vaccine."
In perhaps what may be a sign of developments to come Hellman also told the magazine that clubs will not rule out the courts.
"A complete exclusion of spectators represents such a strong encroachment on civil rights that I consider it legally contestable," he warned.
