Bundesliga club SC Freiburg will not be allowed to host league games at their new ground on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons due to the expected noise, a court has ruled.
The months-long dispute with residents about the operating times of Freiburg's new stadium, located next to the runway of the local airport, was settled by the administrative court in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg on Tuesday.
- Stream Bundesliga matches live on ESPN+ in the U.S.
- Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only)
- Hamilton: Nagelsmann is Germany's best young manager
- Connelly: Why the Bundesliga is the world's funnest league
The Bundesliga club are expected to leave their old stadium and move to the new one during the 2020-21 season.
The court ruled that Bundesliga games on Fridays after 8 p.m. local time and on Sundays between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. cannot take place at the stadium.
STREAM BUNDESLIGA ON ESPN+
Germany's top division is on ESPN+. Can Bayern Munich stay on top or will the likes of Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig take over?
ESPN+: Live games and replays (U.S. only)
Bundesliga home | Schedule | Standings
"The decision is out of all reason," Freiburg executive Oliver Leki said in a statement. "I did not expect it."
While cup and European games are allowed to take place in the evening hours, Bundesliga matches have been regarded as recurring events by the court.
The court said in a statement they had previously "presumably wrongly been classified as rare events in the sense of the Sportanlagenlarmschutzverordnung."
The Sportanlagenlarmschutzverordnung -- the sports ground noise protection decree -- is one of Germany's many bylaws. It regulates the usage time of sports facilities to reduce noise for residents.
The court said that it expected the noise at the stadium to exceed the noise threshold (Larmschwelle).
Source: espn.co.uk