German Bundesliga football clubs Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt are using their stadia as COVID-19 vaccination centres, with perks on offer for fans who get jabbed.
The centre at Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park will commence operations tomorrow (Thursday), offering jabs for up to 700 people per day.
After their vaccinations, visitors will be able to walk around the stadium as well as being able to have their photos taken with the DFB-Pokal trophy. Dortmund won last season’s DFB-Pokal, defeating RB Leipzig 4-1 in the final.
Meanwhile, Eintracht’s Deutsche Bank Park will operate as a vaccination centre on Saturday and Sunday. A total of 1,000 jabs will be available with the room used offering a view of the seating bowl.
For the first 20 people who register online and attend their appointment, the club will provide an Eintracht shirt.
Axel Hellmann, CEO of Eintracht Frankfurt, said: “We have always said that we will help where we can. For all of us, vaccination is the key to getting back to normal life. Therefore, this support on our part is a matter of course.”
The vaccination campaigns come as fans prepare to return to Bundesliga stadia. The German Football League (DFL) last week announced that away fans will be able to head back to Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga stadia from the third round of games in the forthcoming 2021-22 season.
The DFL said that as long as spectator capacity is still subject to legal restrictions, 5% of the tickets for each game are to be reserved for away fans. Once restrictions are lifted completely, there will be an automatic return to the intended allocation of 10%.
The DFL said it had chosen the third round of games in order to allow all clubs to have the experience of at least one home game with fans back in their stadium. Last season’s matches were almost entirely played without spectators, with away fans banned completely following a joint decision taken by clubs amid COVID-19.
The decision came after it was announced earlier this month that a maximum of 25,000 fans are set to be permitted to enter venues for major sporting events in Germany, under new guidelines issued ahead of the start of the 2021-22 Bundesliga season.
The announcement followed a meeting of officials from Germany’s 16 states and is designed to regulate sports events that attract spectator numbers in excess of 5,000. The new Bundesliga season is due to commence on August 13, as Bayern Munich travel to face Borussia Mönchengladbach at Borussia-Park.
Image: Marco Verch/CC BY 2.0/Edited for size
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