German government delays Bundesliga return

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Germany's Bundesliga won't resume May 9 as initially hoped, and the league will need to wait another week to find out about a potential return date after the government delayed its decision on the matter.

Clubs were hopeful of getting the green light to end the league's suspension, but Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country's 16 state governors agreed during a video summit Thursday that the final decision would be pushed back to May 6.

“We have to keep looking at the overall situation," Merkel said, according to the Associated Press. "We have to do all we can to ensure there is no regression, but that we keep going forward step by step."

May 16 or 23 now look like the earliest possible dates for matches to resume.

The top flight of German football has been on hiatus since early March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There have been over 162,000 confirmed cases in Germany. To date, 6,518 people have died of the disease.

Christian Seifert, chief executive of the German Football League (DFL), said last week that the Bundesliga would be ready for a May 9 return if the government deemed it safe.

The league, which has reportedly begun testing its players, wants to finish the campaign by June 30 in order to avoid legal complications that could arise when various players' contracts expire.

Most clubs have nine matches remaining on their schedule.

Though Borussia Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke has warned that the league will "go under" if play doesn't resume this season, some have questioned the sensibility of staging sporting events - even behind closed doors - while other elements of society remain closed.

"Playgrounds closed, Kindergartens closed, Bundesliga is back. It just doesn't fit," Brandenburg minister president Dietmar Woidke told RBB Radio on Thursday, as quoted by ESPN.

Two of Germany's neighboring countries, France and the Netherlands, have already canceled their respective football seasons due to the pandemic.