It’s official: The Serie A will restart on June 20. The first calcio games to be played, however, will be the remaining Coppa Italia rounds – the second leg of the Semi-Finals (Napoli-Inter on June 13 and Juventus-Milan on June 14) and then the Final in Rome on the 17th.
At the end of a meeting between the Minister for Sport Vincenzo Spadafora and representatives from the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the Minister stated:
“It was a very useful meeting between all the stakeholders. [In the past weeks} We had said that calcio would restart only when safety conditions allowed it and our Technical Scientific Committee (CTS) gave its green light. Our Country is restarting and so is sport. The CTS approved the protocol for the resuming of sports activities and confirmed the necessity of a fiduciary quarantine in case any player should test positive to the COVID-19. Another condition is that the need for tampons for players should in no case affect the Italian citizens’ needs and should have no preferential route of any kind.”
“I asked the Italian Football Federation what are they planning to do in case of a new sanitary emergency. The FIGC assured me that there is a Plan B (Playoffs and Playouts) and a Plan C (confirming the current table).”
“I personally hope that we can send a positive sign to the whole Country with the three Coppa Italia matches, which will be broadcast by the public TV. That would be beneficial to all Italians.”
The first legs of the Coppa Italia Semi-Finals saw Napoli beating Inter 1-0 at the San Siro, while Milan and Juventus tied 1-1.
***
Feature Photo: EPA/CLAUDIO PERI