Football team loses 37-0 after social distancing from opponents

Ripdorf fielded only seven players, the minimum needed for a game.

A German football team lost 37-0 to their local rivals on Sunday after the team they named socially distanced throughout the entire match. SG Ripdorf, based in Uelzen in Lower Saxony, decided to play the minimum amount of players required for the match after it emerged that their opponents Holdenstedt had come into contact with a player infected with Covid-19 during their previous match. Despite the Holdenstedt players testing negative for coronavirus, Ripdorf said that since it had not been 14 days since the prior fixture, they were not comfortable with it going ahead. They had asked authorities to postpone the fixture, though this request was rejected. As such the game went ahead, but was merely a formality. From kick-off, a Ripdorf player passed the ball to an opponent before exiting the pitch. Holdenstedt then proceeded to score close to a goal per minute.

"The Holdenstedt players did not understand. But we did not want to risk anything," Ripdorf co-chair Patrick Ristow told ESPN after the match. "They did not go into direct duels and observed the social distancing rules, keeping two metres between them and Holdenstedt players," he added of his players.

Now that they have seen the fruits of their socially distanced labours, one wonders how they will approach their next game out.

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