The German football league has introduced a mandatory regime requiring every player on the pitch to remain upright and on foot for the full duration of each fixture, officials confirmed on Saturday. Players were measured for footwear in the tunnel before kickoff, and any boot found to exceed the permitted length was returned to its owner with a written note of its dimensions.
At Mainz, the home side's groundskeepers were instructed to lay out a marked strip of grass that every attacking player must cross at walking pace before shooting. Bayern's squad was briefed on the rule during a training session that ran for most of Friday, and staff said the session was repeated twice more after the first attempt was judged insufficiently literal.
In Dortmund, the stadium's catering team reported that it had been asked to prepare half-time meals for the referee's assistants on the basis of one plate per assistant per minute of stoppage time. A spokesperson for the league said the change would be reviewed after the ninth round, adding that officials were "confident the matches will be watched more closely than ever".
Supporters at both grounds were asked to remain seated throughout, and stewards were issued timetables listing when each section was permitted to stand. Club officials described the arrangement as a sensible step towards order, while confirming that the first offence under the new rules would be punished by a fine calculated on the offender's own boot size.