Declan Devine believes German Bundesliga can lead the way for return of Irish football

FC Schalke 04 players exercise during a training session in Gelsenkirchen.

The German league will be the first of the top European competitions to resume and with Covid-19 precautions in place, Devine believes there will be lessons to be learned for Irish clubs.

German clubs are considered a month ahead in their progress and became the first league to have players return to training and taking part in sessions while observing social distancing.

There are strict health and hygiene measures in place and all players were required to quarantine for a week before the league resumed in an effort to reduce the risk of infection.

Players of Eintracht Frankfurt come to a raining session in Frankfurt yesterday. The next Bundesliga soccer match after the break due to the coronavirus between Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia Moenchengladbach is supposed to take place on the Commerzbank Arena on Saturday.

Players will be tested twice a week, three team buses will be used for social distancing, temperature checks will be taken at the entrance to the stadium, players will enter the field separately and there will be no handshakes ahead of the behind closed doors matches where a maximum of 322 people will be in attendance.

Protective masks will be mandatory for medical personnel while off the pitch players will get food delivered to their hotel rooms and must provide lists of family members when they go home after matches.

With nine weeks of the season remaining, the league has committed to testing every player once a week, procuring in excess of 25,999 testing kits at a total cost of £2.2 million.

And while the FAI and League of Ireland clubs are highly unlikely to fund testing of that scale or implement some of the precautionary measures introduced in Germany, Devine is hoping the Bundesliga can lead the way for the return of Irish football this year.

"Germany will be the one," said Devine. "They're spending huge amounts of money on testing - is that feasible in Irish football? I'm not sure.

"The Bundesliga is worth so much money to the German economy but it's different here. We're fighting day to day to survive. So you have to make sure everything works out for the benefit of the football club and players. But a lot of clubs and leagues will be looking at Germany to see how they respond."

On the issue of providing regular Covid-19 tests for players, staff and officials, Devine stressed the importance of playing in a safe environment.

"(Testing) That's paramount," he said. "Safety is key. The FAI are talking about every club having a Covid-19 officer who will liaise all the issues. Every club has a doctor anyway. This is bigger than football this pandemic and we have to make sure everybody is safe.

"There are stumbling blocks in terms of where you can play, how you can play, how you can train, where you can train but we all want to get back and want to be safe doing so. It means a lot to people Irish football and people are itching to get back at it again.

"I don't think there's anything that will happen today or tomorrow but as a country and an association we have to explore everything to try and get football back again.

"It's people's professions, and no matter what job you do you want to get back working and doing it right.

"I don't think there's going to be anything that's going to be normal for a long time. If we had the safety aspect sorted, I think everyone would deal with a slight twist in terms of normality, how you prepare and the numbers you work with on a daily basis.

"Ultimately we want to make sure we get back to playing football as soon as possible but it has to be in a safe environment."

Devine this week made the suggestion of scrapping the current Airtricity League season and replacing it with three regionalised leagues involving teams from both the Premier and First Division.

The FAI is aiming for a July 20th return and Devine praised the association for 'thinking outside the box' as they explore all avenues for a return to football.

"Fair play to the FAI for thinking outside the box," continued the City boss. "They are trying to work with the clubs in terms of looking ahead and seeing what options we have.

"I have to see a way forward for the sake of this seaosn. I have to look ahead. At this moment in time, while it's h ghly umlikely we will be playing games before July 20th, we're still down for coming back on June 8th to prepare for coming back on July 20th and we have to plan accordingly."