Official: Leverkusen away postponed

[JFK-1 1,661]

Bayer Leverkusen are monitoring advice on the spread of coronavirus but may host Rangers in their Europa League last-16 tie in an empty stadium.

 

The teams meet at Ibrox in the first leg on Thursday, with the return leg in Leverkusen seven days later.

Germany's Health Minister, Jens Spahn, has called for gatherings of more than 1,000 people to be cancelled.

 

North Rhine-Westphalia, the region that includes Levekusen, has the highest number of recorded cases in Germany.

 

Armin Laschet, the leader of the region's government, said that the state intends to follow the Health Minister's advice, with Saturday's Bundesliga game between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke potentially being played in an empty stadium.

 

"I will let the clubs decide if they want to play without spectators or if they prefer to not play at all," he said.

 

Paris St-Germain's Champions League last-16 match against Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday will be played behind closed doors because of coronavirus, but RB Leipzig's home game against Tottenham Hotspur will be played in front of spectators.

 

Meanwhile, the Israeli FA say their preparations for the Euro 2020 play-off semi-final against Scotland on 26 March "continue as usual" despite coach Andreas Herzog having to self-isolate.

 

The Austrian is forced to remain in his homeland for nine days due to travel restrictions because of the coronavirus, meaning he will miss a national training camp for Israel-based players.

 

Players playing outwith Israel will head directly to England for the pre-match training camp four days before the match at Hampden, but no request has been made to Uefa to postpone the fixture.

 

Uefa said it is "closely monitoring" the situation regarding coronavirus and will look at decisions taken by national and local authorities which may affect fixtures.

 

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/51803987

[Bill 13,717]

Makes a lot of sense.

[compo 6,059]

And therefore it should not be televised to stop people congregating in pubs and clubs to watch it 

[onevision 1,434]

Do you think it would make much difference if there was no crowd allowed and instead played crowd soundbites over the P.A system?

[Briton 314]

We played Inter behind closed doors; must be strange for the players.

[Bill 13,717]

36 minutes ago, compo said:

And therefore it should not be televised to stop people congregating in pubs and clubs to watch it 

Then show it on terrestrial tv

[compo 6,059]

2 minutes ago, Bill said:

Then show it on terrestrial tv

BBC Scotland ?

[Uilleam 5,393]

10 minutes ago, compo said:

BBC Scotland ?

Would we have to boycott it, then?

 

[ian1964 10,370]

I think it is inevitable that this match will be played behind closed doors 

[Gonzo79 13,536]

It's looking likely.  

 

I'm a bit too concerned about how we'll cope with them on Thursday to even consider the away tie.  Hopefully if a decision is made to play it behind closed doors it is made sharpish, for the sake of Bears planning to travel.