Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, on 8 March 2020 the
Federal Minister of Health,
Jens Spahn recommended cancelling events with more than 1,000 people. The following day, the
DFL announced that the Bundesliga season would be completed to ensure planning for the following season, and that any postponements would be to matchdays en bloc. On 10 March, it was announced that the catch-up match between
Borussia Mönchengladbach and
1. FC Köln on 11 March would be played
behind closed doors, the first such occurrence in league history. All fixtures on matchday 26 (13–16 March) were planned to be played without spectators due to local restrictions on public gatherings, but the round was subsequently postponed on 13 March due to safety issues. On 16 March, the DFL General Assembly suspended the league until at least 2 April, and scheduled another meeting for the last week of March to discuss how the competition should proceed. The DFL General Assembly, at their meeting on 31 March, chose to extend the suspension until at least 30 April per the recommendation of the executive committee. At the meeting, the DFL established a sports medicine and special match operations task force responsible for examining a safe method to resume league play. On 13 March 2020,
Luca Kilian of
SC Paderborn was the first Bundesliga player to test positive for
COVID-19. By 21 March 2020, several clubs, including
Eintracht Frankfurt and
Hertha BSC, were under quarantine after multiple players and staff had tested positive, and training was made impossible for most others by curfews or the closure of facilities. The DFL looked into possible scenarios to finish the season regularly. In his report for the 31 March DFL meeting, virologist
Alexander Kekulé recommended to write off the current season. On 4 April 2020, he clarified that matches behind closed doors were possible in principle, but would require extensive measures, including a total of about 20,000 tests for COVID-19 for the players and staff (testing every player before the start of each game), and an extended quarantine for everyone involved. Kekulé was doubtful though that those measures could be justified at a time when tests for the general population were in short supply. At their 31 March meeting, the DFL had decided that clubs that enter
insolvency proceedings this season would not suffer the usual deduction of points, and clubs that enter proceedings next season only lose three instead of the usual nine points. By 23 April 2020, the DFL had targeted 9 May as a possible resumption date for the Bundesliga. However, this goal suffered a setback when
1. FC Köln announced on 1 May that three people at the club tested positive, without showing any symptoms. This was done as part of a wave of 1,724 tests carried out involving personnel of the 36 Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga clubs, in coordination with the
Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, which resulted in seven further positive results in addition to those of Köln. After consultation with the German government, chancellor
Angela Merkel and the
leaders of the states of Germany approved the resumption of the leagues for the second half of May, with matches behind closed doors. The following day, the DFL confirmed that the Bundesliga would resume on 16 May, a Saturday, with matchday 26. The final matchday of the season (round 34), originally scheduled for 16 May, took place on 27 June, making it the second latest date any Bundesliga season has concluded. Only the
1971–72 season finished later (due to
UEFA Euro 1972), concluding on 28 June. On 14 May, after a meeting of all clubs, five substitutions were permitted, which has been temporarily allowed by
IFAB following a proposal by
FIFA to lessen the impact of fixture congestion. The broadcaster
Sky Sport announced that for the first two weeks after the restart, the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga simulcast ("conference") would be shown on
free-to-air television in Germany, in order to prevent gatherings of people without
pay TV subscriptions. ==Teams==