
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.

The Werkself need a win in their penultimate match of the season at RB Leipzig on Monday evening (18:00 CEST) to keep their hopes of third place alive until the final day. After Eintracht Frankfurt lost on Saturday, Roberto Pätzold's side can close the gap on their rivals to two points and leave it all to play for next Sunday.
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 1-3 loss at VfB Stuttgart on Matchday 33 of the 2025/26 Bundesliga season...
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Down to fifth from fourth place despite taking an early lead: in the head-to-head for a Champions League spot, Bayer 04 were 1-0 up at VfB Stuttgart with just a minute played thanks to an Aleix Garcia strike, but ultimately lost 3-1 (2-1) to the more determined hosts. It meant the Swabians leapfrogged the Werkself in the Bundesliga table on the penultimate matchday.
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Today sees Bayer 04 go head-to-head with their next direct rivals in the race for Champions League qualification (kick-off 15:30 CEST). Opponents Stuttgart are currently fifth in the table, level on points with the Werkself but one place below them due to a three-goal inferior goal difference. The Black and Reds' record at Bad Cannstatt tells a clearer story: they've not lost at VfB for over 16 years. One important factor in securing what would be three crucial points away from home is Leverkusen's strength on the counter-attack. Whilst Stuttgart are also extremely dangerous going forward, they will be without their captain. Today’s matchday news.
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