Play. The official press release from Lega Calcio is still missing, but there are no more doubts: this weekend Serie A will resume its course, albeit behind closed doors, making up for the matches of the 26th day, Inter-Juventus (Sunday at 20.45) on all. The Government put an end to the theater of the last few days directly in the Coronavirus decree: "Sporting events and competitions of all types and disciplines, held in every place, both public and private, are also suspended - reads a passage – The aforementioned events and competitions, as well as the training sessions of competitive athletes, are still permitted inside sports facilities used behind closed doors, or outdoors without the presence of the public".
A stance that left no room for any kind of interpretation, which had already been anticipated a few hours earlier by the Minister of Sport, Vincent Spadafora: "It will be possible to hold sporting events and competitions exclusively behind closed doors - he declared in the morning - We will also give very specific indications for the health prevention of the teams, staff and all personnel involved".
In short, after days of uncertainty and several pushes and pulls, the Government decided to pave the way and the highly contentious Serie A could only take note of it, otherwise it would risk much greater economic damage than the lost revenues.
The last act of rebellion, so to speak, was made by De Laurentiis yesterday morning, preventing the carrying out of the Coppa Italia semi-final between Napoli and Inter: the Prefect had in fact given the go-ahead for closed doors but the blue president, on the strength of the 40 tickets sold and the previous fresh Juventus-Milan, opposed it, preferring to recover it later. When, frankly, it is difficult to say, indeed even impossible. With the current calendar there is no more room, unless Inter and Napoli are both eliminated from their respective European cups.
A problem that also affects the Juventus, whose calendar is only less saturated than that of the Nerazzurri: in fact, they are even missing a third match (the one against Sampdoria), currently without a date. A beautiful chaos, son of an at least questionable management that partially canceled two days without having the right alternatives, moreover to then find themselves back at the starting point.
The Coronavirus decree provides the closure of every stadium in Italy until Friday 3 Aprilthus incorporating the next three days of the championship (on March 28-29 there will be a break for the national teams). While waiting for the complete programme, we can give the one for next weekend, which will see a shift halved in order to make up for the 26th day and restore some order to the standings.
We will leave on Saturday with Sampdoria-Verona (20.45), while Sunday will be the turn of Milan-Genoa (12.30) Parma-Spal (15) Sassuolo-Brescia (15) Udinese-Fiorentina (18) and Inter-Juventus (20.45). Marotta too therefore had to surrender, thus putting aside pride and regulation: the latter, in fact, proved him right because the matches, in case of postponement, must be recovered in chronological order. Unless, as happened yesterday, the majority of clubs agree to overturn the calendar, thus putting Inter in a position to be backed to the wall.
The Government then took care of the rest, so much so that Marotta, already upon entering the CONI offices, had hinted at much more lenient positions. So he starts again from the day of discord and from a Derby d'Italia that promises sparks: on the pitch though, but because we've already had far too many words...
