VIENNA (AP) — The Austrian soccer league has started an investigation into the coronavirus testing procedures of all 16 second-division teams after three players from one club tested positive over the weekend.
Each club must provide receipts and test results to prove that all players have been tested on a weekly basis since play resumed on June 5 after a 12-week break, the league told the Austria Press Agency on Tuesday.
The investigation comes after last-place Kapfenberger SV apparently breached the anti-coronavirus rules by failing to structurally test its players.
The league opened proceedings against Kapfenberg on Monday.
While Kapfenberg initially denied any wrongdoing, club president Erwin Fuchs later acknowledged that the team doctor had probably overlooked a few players during testing last week.
Fuchs called it “a human mistake” in an interview with Austrian TV station ORF.
After one player was found positive on Friday, Kapfenberg’s league match that day against Wacker Innsbruck was rescheduled for Tuesday and the team went into quarantine in a sports academy near the stadium.
All players underwent another test, with results the next day coming back positive for two more players.
Kapfenberg’s game against Wacker has been postponed once more, until next week, but the club said it expected to play again in an away game at 14th-ranked GAK in Gleisdorf on Saturday.
Four rounds are remaining this season in the second division, from which no teams will be relegated.
___
More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
