berlin hertha berlin defender dedryck boyata apologised on sunday for his upclose encounter with marko grujic but denied kissing his teammate after a senior german politician criticised players for breaching the leagues strict hygiene protocolthe german bundesliga restarted on saturday after a twomonth break due to the coronavirus pandemic with clubs having agreed to draconian hygiene guidelines in a plan approved by the german governmenthowever bavarian state minister markus soeder said he expected the league to tighten up instructions on how to celebrate goals after some players hugged with teammatesplayers were told to avoid contact whenever possible especially when celebrating goalsthat was ignored on a few occasions although a repentant boyata said he was simply uttering instructions to grujic at a cornerthe belgium international had appeared to kiss grujic on the cheek on saturday before hertha scored three quick goals in a 30 win against hoffenheimi apologize for putting my hands on grujics face boyata wrote on instagram explaining that it wasnt a kiss or a celebration when he grabbed the serbia midfielderi was giving him instructions about a set piecewe must definitely be careful now that we play under this situation added the 29yearoldwe have to adapt our way to play or celebrateearlier this month hertha had already suspended exchelsea forward salomon kalou for posting a video of him shaking hands with teammates in the dressing room before trainingfootball has an extreme function to be a role model so we should stick to our instructions and pay attention to it next week soeder told broadcaster sport1 on sundayalso on saturday some borussia moenchengladbach players hugged after their team scored two early goals in the 31 victory at eintracht frankfurtthe players must also obey the rules added soederthe german football league dfl has said it would not sanction any players for not sticking to the guidelines at the weekend but that could changehertha coach bruno labbadia defended his players who hugged in celebration after their goals insisting it is part of the gameweve been tested so many times that we can allow it said labbadia who was taking charge of hertha for the first timeif you cant celebrate anymore the whole thing breaks down