Match against Schalke will be intense without fans as well, says Reyna

Borussia Dortmund star Giovanni Reyna has said that match against Schalke in the Bundesliga will be an intense affair, even if it is played behind closed doors.

Borussia Dortmund star Giovanni Reyna has said that match against Schalke in the Bundesliga will be an intense affair, even if it is played behind closed doors. His remark comes as Bundesliga gears up for restarting its season on May 16. The competition was suspended for two months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the matches this week are played behind closed doors as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus. "I think I speak for the whole team when I say that we are buzzing to get playing again. I have never seen a derby live or played in one so of course, I've been really looking forward to this game," Goal.com quoted Reyna as saying to the club's official YouTube channel.

"They're a great team but I think if we play the way we can play then we can win. It's going to be a high-intensity game with or without fans," he added. On May 7, the German Football Association had confirmed that domestic competition Bundesliga will resume its season from May 16. Six games will be taking place on May 16, with Borussia Dortmund also slated to take on Schalke.

The final matchday of the 2019-20 campaign is scheduled for the weekend of June 27-28. This decision was taken by the German Football Association as it got the green light from the German government to go ahead with resuming Bundesliga. However, the tournament has been asked to follow the coronavirus protocols, and it will see stadiums introduce biological controls similar to those required by medical facilities. The matches will be held without fans and under strict safety conditions, including frequent testing of players, coaches, referees, and support staff.

Stadiums will be allowed to have a maximum of 330 people, including security, club employees, teams, and staff. The re-opening plan will also see the players being kept in quarantine, in an isolated training camp or similar, for the remainder of the season. Spain, Italy, and the UK are also looking to kickstart their suspended domestic football competitions. It is being speculated that the Premier League, La Liga, and Serie A will resume their respective seasons in June this year.

However to make things a little easier for teams when football resumes, the International Football Association Board (The IFAB), in the light of coronavirus pandemic, agreed to introduce a temporary amendment, allowing for a maximum of five substitutes to be made per team. "For competitions which have either started or are intended to start, but are scheduled to be completed by 31 December 2020, the IFAB has approved FIFA's proposal to introduce a temporary amendment to Law 3 - The Players, which will allow for a maximum of five substitutes to be made per team. However, to avoid disruption to the game, each team will only have three opportunities to make substitutions; substitutions may also be made at half-time," the FIFA said in a statement.

The temporary change in the rules has been brought in to protect players' fitness when competitions come back after football across the world was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision on whether to apply this temporary amendment will remain at the discretion of each individual competition organiser, while The IFAB and FIFA will determine at a later stage whether this temporary amendment would need to be extended further.

Currently, all sporting action across the world has come to a halt due to the coronavirus pandemic. The domestic football competitions in France and the Netherlands have already been called off due to COVID-19. (ANI)

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