
That has obviously happened by adhering to all regulations and after players and staff were provided with detailed information beforehand about all rules prescribed by the pandemic officer Dr Karl-Heinrich Dittmar in close cooperation with the local health authorities. Full team training will not happen in the coming days and this ruling initially applies up to Sunday, 5 April.
In the training sessions, the distance rule is maintained by the small groups training in different areas of the club site at different times (BayArena, weights room, speed court etc). Every player has to shower at home and communal events like breakfast and lunch have been cancelled.
The exemption from the state health ministry is based on professional athletes having the opportunity to be able to practice their profession. And that makes training under professional conditions an absolute necessity. On the other hand, the North Rhine-Westphalia authorities argue that training professional athletes attract great attention in public and that can have a negative effect on carrying out their profession. The ruling not only applies to professional footballers in North Rhine-Westphalia but also competitive athletes at the Olympic centres in the state.

Having progressed to the DFB Pokal Round of 16, the Bayer 04 Women do not have much time before their next Bundesliga fixture. On Friday night (18:30 CEST), coach Roberto Pätzold’s side kick off matchday six at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium against Werder Bremen – and they have a clear mission.
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career working as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personal Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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Bayer 04 host top French club Marseille at the BayArena on matchday four in the 2026/27 UEFA Europa League group stage. The match kicks off on Thursday 5 November at 21:00 CET. The latest information on ticket sales.
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During the international break, Bayer 04 will face third-division newcomers SC Fortuna Köln on Friday 2 October (kick-off: 11:00 CEST). The match will be played on training pitch 1 at the BayArena, as preparations are already underway at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium for the Bayer 04 women’s Bundesliga home match against Werder Bremen, which is due to kick off in the early evening. To ensure the friendly against Fortuna Köln runs smoothly and without disruption, it will be played behind closed doors.
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