DFB-Pokal first round scheduled
FCA and Celle switch draw
First Team
27.08.2020, 16:00
The DFB announced specific dates and times of the DFB-Pokal first-round ties on Thursday. FC Augsburg will page Oberliga side MTV Eintracht Celle on Saturday 12th September at 15:30 CEST. The two clubs have agreed to switch the home advantage of the tie, after a proposal was offered by MTV Eintracht Celle and accepted by FCA. As a result, the tie will take place at the WWK Arena.
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic the exchanging of home advantage, which is usually against the rules, has become possible. Eintracht Celle qualified for the Pokal for the first time in the history of the club by winning the Lower Saxony Cup against MTV Gifhorn. “It was tough, but we made some profitability calculations and made the decision not to play the game at the Günther-Volker-Stadion,” explained Celle’s head of football operations, Stefan Cohrs. “We want to apologise to our fans above all, but the financial risk coupled with the difficulty of meeting these requirements in a educed amount of time is something that we are neither prepared nor able to do as an amateur club,” said Cohrs.
“After MTV Eintracht Celle came to us with the request to switch the tie, we were happy to go along with it. Here in Augsburg, thanks to our hygiene measures that we have been introducing since the Coronavirus outbreak, we have the right conditions to be able to hold the game at short notice,” said sporting director Stefan Reuter.
