A year without fans?
Scientists predict that the stadiums could remain empty for months.
Berlin (dpa) - German football fans may have wait more than a year before being able to attend matches again, the president of the influential Leopoldina science academy, Gerald Haug, has said.
"It will certainly be many months, but it could also be up to a year and a half," Haug told public broadcasters ARD on Monday night.
German football has been suspended since mid-March because of the coronavirus pandemic, and clubs and officials hope to complete the season with games behind closed doors from May onwards.
They will also have a desire to bring the fans back into the arenas at some stage but Haug said it would "certainly be wise" not to open the stadiums as long as there is no vaccine.
Scientists have said that it could take until the end of the year, or even longer, to have a vaccine against the Sars-CoV-2 virus in place.