After the upcoming international break, fans will return to fill the Serie A stadiums at a 50% capacity.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the country’s leading sports daily, the Lega Serie A decided that, starting from the weekend of February 6th, Serie A stadiums will once again be partially filled. For now, only half of the capacity has been granted, with the idea to return to 100% as soon as possible.
The Derby della Madonnina between Inter and Milan, which is scheduled on February 5th at 6 PM, is thus “safe” and will be open to at least 40000 viewers.
Returning to maximum capacity for outdoor facilities, including sports ones, will depend on two factors, La Gazzetta reports. On the one hand, the future evolution of the pandemic; on the other hand, the imminent election of a new President in Italy, which may have repercussions on the current government.
Luigi De Siervo, the CEO of the Lega Serie A, relied to radio channel Gr Parlamento:
“We will have at least 50% capacity and that is the minimum. We hope to soon reach 100% of the capacity of the facilities thanks to the great work being done by the undersecretary of sports, Valentina Vezzali. We must return to a level of normality and bring the people back to the stadiums. This is because, when European competitions start again, it would be an enormous damage to our clubs to play abroad with the opposing public and at home without fans, we would lose the home advantage”.
Italian stadiums have not been operating at full capacity since the beginning of the Covid pandemics (February 2020). De Siervo hopes to be able to follow the “French model” as France will remove all capacity limits, both indoor and outdoor, effective February.