Reiner calmund: reduce “insanity holders”

"Should the infection rate increase, the situation will have to be reconsidered and, if necessary, stopped," said the former manager of current cup finalist bayer 04 leverkusen in an interview with the "suddeutsche zeitung" newspaper. "I"m 71 and a risk taker. Health is the most important thing. If i was going to choose fubball over health, they would have to put me in a mental institution right away," said calmund.

The former manager heavyweight, who lost 50 kilograms after a gastric bypass operation in january, praised the german soccer league (DFL) for its hygiene concept around the ghost games. "It has to be said that the bundesliga follows a perfect and strict health concept," said calmund. Some clubs would otherwise have had "serious economic problems". "Without ghost games the league was missing 750 million euro because of tv and spectators. Only 130 million in spectator revenue is missing, which is only the fourth most important source of income after television money, sponsoring and transfers, despite the record international attendance," calmund calculated.

The former top functionary estimated the salary of a top player at "maybe 250,000 marks" in his early days in leverkusen in 1976. "The tv money for the whole league was only 5,8 million mark. Today, it"s 1.2 billion euros," said calmund. That's why it's not uncommon to see million-dollar owners today. "I"m in favor of reducing these insane keepers," said calmund. "But it will be difficult, the EU does not want to play along."