DFB: The German Football Association has withdrawn honorary membership from former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. The decision was made by the DFB Bundestag on Friday in Bonn without a dissenting vote. Schröder has been under a lot of pressure since the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine – the 77-year-old former chancellor has not yet condemned the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin and is still holding on to his posts in Russian state-owned companies.
It was recently announced that Schröder had traveled to Moscow for talks with Putin about the war. Schröder has long been friends with Putin. He works as a lobbyist for the natural gas pipeline companies Nord Stream 1 and 2 and is chairman of the board of directors of the Russian oil company Rosneft. The SPD leadership has already sent an ultimatum to Schröder to resign his mandate. A “prompt” answer is expected, party leader Lars Klingbeil said a week ago. So far, such an answer from Schröder is not known. A local SPD association has already applied for Schröder’s party expulsion.
Hannelore Ratzeburg has been newly appointed as an honorary member. The 70-year-old was most recently Vice-President for Equal Opportunities and Women’s and Girls’ Soccer on the Executive Committee and retired on Friday for reasons of age. Ratzeburg received a certificate and a bouquet of flowers on the podium in the conference room. “It’s a very long time – 45 years of the DFB. It wasn’t always easy at first, but it was still fun. Thank you for your support,” she said to the delegates. “I’m leaving happy and satisfied, and pleased with what we have achieved.”
Bundesliga, Crown: The Bundesliga game planned for Saturday between FC Augsburg and FSV Mainz 05 will be postponed due to the Corona outbreak at Rheinhessen. This was announced by the German Football League on Thursday evening. The match will be postponed “because 1. FSV Mainz 05 still does not have the minimum number of players required by the DFL rules of the game due to positive corona findings,” it said. A new game date should be announced as soon as possible. The Mainz game against BVB was canceled last week and postponed to next Wednesday.
2. Bundesliga, Crown: After a corona outbreak in the team, second division soccer team Hamburger SV submitted an application to the German Football League (DFL) to postpone the home game against FC Erzgebirge Aue scheduled for Saturday. “Unfortunately, we would not be able to play in the current situation and have canceled the training sessions scheduled for today,” said HSV sports director Jonas Boldt on Thursday on the club’s homepage. Training was canceled in the morning because several players and people close to the team had complained of being unwell. The suspected corona cases have been confirmed according to current tests. “A large part of the squad and the staff has contracted the corona virus,” said the club, without naming the exact number of sick people. The DFL must now decide at short notice whether the game will be canceled.
Fortuna Düsseldorf also submitted the same application to the DFL to move the game on Saturday at SC Paderborn. Fortuna announced this on Thursday. The background is currently 14 confirmed corona cases among Fortuna professionals. In addition, almost the entire coaching staff around head coach Daniel Thioune is affected. This does not allow a game on Saturday (1.30 p.m.), it said. “Due to the high number of corona-related failures, we are in constant contact with the DFL. We have now applied for the game to be rescheduled,” said sporting director Klaus Allofs. Assistant coach Jan Hoepner led the training with the remaining uninfected professionals on Thursday. The training group was strengthened with seven players from the junior division. Paderborn’s coach Lukas Kwasniok had previously emphasized on Thursday that he was preparing to host the game.
Tennis, women: The Ukrainian Marta Kostjuk has criticized the tennis associations’ sanctions against Russian and Belarusian players as insufficient. At the tournament in Indian Wells, California, the 19-year-old demanded that players from both countries be excluded from all competitions, including in their sport. For the teenager, the tennis associations WTA (women) and ATP (men) as well as the world association ITF lagged behind the reactions of the football associations Fifa and Uefa after Russia invaded Ukraine: “Look at the big sport, what was done there – it was right.”
In tennis, Russia and Belarus are only excluded from the Davis Cup (men) and the Billie Jean King Cup (women). Professionals from both countries, on the other hand, are allowed to continue to compete in tournaments including the four Grand Slams with the blessing of the ATP and WTA. Only the naming of their home country and the presentation of their national flag is forbidden.
Kostjuk said after her second-round win over Ukraine-born Maryna Zanevska of Belgium, “Seeing Russians in a tournament hurts me”. In addition, they only talked about “how they can still transfer money. That’s not acceptable to me.” Kostjuk also lamented the lack of distance between Russian players and their country’s government in view of the war: “You can’t be neutral on this matter. These ‘no war’ demands hurt me too because they have no real substance.”
Tennis, men: Novak Djokovic does not play in the ATP tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami. The former number one in the tennis world rankings justified this decision on Wednesday by saying that the US health authority CDC did not change its rules for entry and that he could not compete in the two events. The Serb had stated in a BBC interview in mid-February that he was still not vaccinated against the corona virus.
He was seeded number two in the tableau of the top-attended Indian Wells event. Due to the withdrawal, the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrow is now in the seeding list. The day before, the organizers of the Masters 1000 tournament, where Tommy Haas is tournament director, had announced that they were in contact with Djokovic’s team and that it was unclear whether the Serb could enter the USA. The 34-year-old said he wished the participants in the tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami good luck.
Djokovic was expelled from the country just before the start of the Australian Open earlier this year and was therefore unable to defend his title in Melbourne. The long-time number one in the world had traveled to Australia believing that it had an entry permit. A federal court, however, decided otherwise. Djokovic has played his only tournament this year in Dubai. There, only a negative PCR test was required to participate, but no vaccination against the corona virus.