The Daily Bee (March 16th, 2020): Meunier to BVB and controversial Watzke comments

• Meunier to BVB

According to Jérôme Rothen, a former PSG player and current pundit for RMC, Thomas Meunier will join Borussia Dortmund this summer. The right back has an expiring contract with PSG and would be available on a free transfer.

• Controversial Watzke interview

Hans-Joachim Watzke was a guest in the Sportschau a German sports talkshow on ARD and he made some very questionable comments regarding the recent events similar to the ones Karl Heinz Rummenigge made a few days ago and make it seem that both deem financial gain more important than public health.

But first lets get to the more tame comments, Watzke, probably correctly, claimed that even if the Bundesliga would continue at some point, it won’t be with fans in the stands:

“If we play again this season, it will be ghost games. Nobody in the Bundesliga still assumes that we will still have games with viewers.”

This should not be very surprising. Even if the season can somehow resume, which is a big if at this point, it would still be the smart choice to play the matches without thousands of people in close quarters.

Talking about the Euros planned for this summer, Watzke hopes they will be postponed:

”I think that’s how it happens. I hope so. I cannot imagine that the opening game will take place in Rome on June 12th. I expect the euro to be postponed.”

UEFA has announced that they will discuss the current situation with all the national associations tomorrow and it looks likely that the Euros will be postponed.

Then the conversation switched to the potential financial damage to the Bundesliga and the clubs and well Watzke made it clear where his interests lie:

“If we had played the derby without spectators, there would have been about 80 people in the stadium. That would have been an acceptable situation and would have relieved the league of 75 million euros. It was a evaluation of interests. This is not sensible. We have to go back to normal at some point. We shouldn’t overdo it either. I would classify the health risk for a professional team as not so serious.”

Those are some pretty controversial comments from Watzke when you consider that he’s basically saying that players should expose themselves because of financial interests. I get that the league will lose out on a lot of money and some clubs, mostly smaller clubs, will probably be in serious financial trouble in the near future but there are still some things that are more important than football.

• Hakimi playing LoL

What do football pros do during a quarantine? Basically the same thing most of us do which is playing video games, here’s Achraf Hakimi playing Leagu of Legends with Spanish streamer Ibai. He’s joined by fellow pros Thibaut Courtois, Sergio Reguilon and Borja Iglesias.