German government hints at smaller crowds or empty stadiums

German government people have suggested that big crowds at sports events should be reduced. That follows a weekend which featured one empty-stadium Bundesliga game and another with a crowd of 50,000. Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert says it is “really hard to understand” how 50,000 people can attend an event when the official advice is to reduce social contact. The Interior Ministry has indicated it would prefer national rules on sports events instead of the patchwork of regional rules which have allowed the variation in crowd sizes.