Football is back. This weekend the German Bundesliga becomes the first major European league to resume after a two-month shutdown of the coronavirus.
Also resuming is the 2nd Bundesliga.
Six matches are slated for today at the elite German league.
Borussia Dortmund vs Schalke 04 at their Signal Iduna Park at 14:30, Augsburg vs hosting Wolfsburg at the same time. Three other matches scheduled for the same time-belt are: Fortuna Düsseldorf vs SC Paderborn 07, RasenBallsport Leipzig vs Freiburg and Hoffenheim vs Hertha BSC. At 17:30, Eintracht Frankfurt will host Borussia Mönchengladbach at their Commerzbank Arena.
The Bundesliga has nine rounds of the season still to be played and all matches will go ahead behind closed doors.
It is not the first European league to return, however.
That honour goes to the Faroe Islands, which resumed its league last weekend.
Not to overlook Belarus, the only European nation in which sport has persisted in the last two months.
Here are confirmed restart dates elsewhere in Europe:
Czech Republic — May 23
Denmark — May 28
Serbia — May 30
Austria — June 2
Portugal — June 4
Croatia — June 6
Turkey — June 12
Norway — June 16
Russia — June 21
Finland — July 1
Still awaiting green light:
England, Spain and Italy both stay optimistic to end the season, but continuing health-crisis issues indicate that little is fixed in stone.
The UK and Italy have been the worst affected countries in Europe by the pandemic and Spain is not far behind.
Nevertheless, the English Premier League and second-tier Championship are targeting a mid-June restart.
Other countries hoping to be able to resume are:
Romania — May 27
Poland — May 29
Spain — June 12
Italy — June 13
Greece — June 14
Switzerland — June 20
Season over :
The Netherlands was the first European nation to put the season to an early end on April 24 when the Eredivisie was postponed without the crowning of a winner.
France then followed suit on April 30, ending the season with 10 rounds of matches unplayed.
However, the season was not voided, with Paris Saint-Germain confirmed as champions, European places dished out and relegation and promotion was maintained on a two-up, two-down basis between the top two divisions.
Belgium declared its season was over on Friday, with winners of the Club Brugge, after the Belgian government stated last week that it would postpone all athletic events until 31 July.
In Scotland the season has already been called early in the three divisions below the top flight and the Premiership is on the verge of doing the same, which would mean Celtic being crowned champions.
On Friday, Cyprus called an end to its season without announcing a winner, while European places were associated with Omonia Nicosia reaching the next Champions League qualifying rounds.
