It begins again. Also for football the time has finally come for3 phase”: after the stop (March 8) and the resumption of training (first individual, then group), here we are at return to the field, this time for real. This was confirmed, at the end of the summit held yesterday by videoconference, Vincent Spadafora, who appeared rather relieved after the numerous (and in some ways cloying) controversies of the last few months.
"It was a very useful meeting, now Italy is restarting and it is only right that football restarts too – the Minister of Sport immediately commented – The Cts' ok has arrived for the FIGC protocol on fiduciary quarantine in the event of a positive a player, moreover they assured me that any buffers from the players will not be able to damage those of the rest of the Italians, there will be no preferential paths of any kind. If the contagion curve changes and the championship is forced to stop again, the FIGC assured me the existence of a plan B, the playoffs, and a plan C, the crystallization of the standings. In light of all this we can say that the championship will resume on June 20th. First, space for the Italian Cup”.
Waiting to officially know the calendar (today the League will establish dates and times), we can say with certainty that on the weekend of 13 14-June they will go on stage the return semi-finals of the Coppa Italia (Juventus-Milan and Napoli-Inter), with the final on Wednesday 17 and the championship on the following weekend. A sort of compromise between the government's request to broadcast matches in the clear and the needs of Sky and Dazn, far from inclined to "give away" the product already damaged enough. The Cup, broadcast on Rai as per tradition, brings the parties to agreement, even if the clubs do not get the same consensus.
"From a sporting point of view, we find it questionable to award an important title in such a short time after three months of lockdown - commented the president of Milan, Scaroni - We understand the desire to offer quality matches, but...". Understandable position, but it is fair to underline how satisfying everyone would have been practically impossible. The real question, if anything, is understanding how will football get to the end of this 13-day journey (including recovery), but above all of a sword of Damocles called quarantine. The Technical-Scientific Committee reiterated that, in the event of one or more positives (including in the staff), the whole team will have to be isolated for 14 days, with the inevitable postponement of matches expected in that time frame.
An eventuality that would break the bank again, which is why plans B (playoffs / playouts) and C (crystallisation of the standings at the time of the stop) sadly remain topical, especially since the players are against the withdrawal to the bitter end and the companies, some actually unable to do so, will not resist. The risk is high, as it demonstrates the Bologna case: in the end the member of staff tested negative, but for a few hours it was feared that the restart dream would end before it even began.
Then there are other thorny issues to be resolved, such as that of contracts expiring on June 30 (this also applies to loans and new purchases, see Kulusevski): Fifa has established that no one will be able to change shirts until the end of the season, but he certainly can't force players and clubs to extend their working relationships, not even by a couple of months. So there is a possibility that some teams find themselves without important elements, the whole with an inevitably congested calendar, moreover in the middle of summer.
Il climate chapter scares not a little, also because the televisions, in an attempt to enhance the product, push for spread the matches over the greatest possible time span, including the afternoon. At the time of writing, the 16.30 pm schedule is still valid, after today's Lega assembly who knows: in fact, players and coaches are ready to do battle to defend their positions. In short, the summit of the Zoncolan (cited Damiano Tommasi) is still quite far away, but in the meantime football has a date to restart. And this, thinking about how things were no later than two weeks ago, is already a first victory.
