Lega Serie A President Paolo Dal Pino maintains the COVID-19 crisis has created ‘more unity than before’ in Italian football and he hopes to have fans in stadiums next month.
The worst is behind Italy in terms of the pandemic, as daily deaths are now well under 20 and very few new positive cases.
Cinemas and theatres have opened up again, albeit with social distancing, so there’s no reason why football stadiums shouldn’t follow suit.
Lega Serie A President Paolo Dal Pino maintains the COVID-19 crisis has created ‘more unity than before’ in Italian football and he hopes to have fans in stadiums next month.
The worst is behind Italy in terms of the pandemic, as daily deaths are now well under 20 and very few new positive cases.
Cinemas and theatres have opened up again, albeit with social distancing, so there’s no reason why football stadiums shouldn’t follow suit.
“We need to be prudent and patient, but we are confident that if the health situation continues to improve, the gradual return of fans into the stadiums will be a reality, perhaps partially next month,” Dal Pino told the New York Times.
It had seemed for a while as if Italy would follow France in shutting down the 2019-20 season, but they showed patience and have resumed in safety.
Dal Pino even hopes the crisis will have helped Italian football break through some of its usual rivalries, arguments and focus on individual interests.
“There is more unity than before,” he said. “Not having games, not having discussions where they were criticizing the referees or the players, not having the controversies, removed a lot of tension. COVID-19 changed a lot of things. It changed the way people interacted.
“Abandoning the season would have severely impacted the value of both the clubs and the players.”
On top of that, the Government is finally moving forward with plans to ease restrictions on building new stadiums or restructuring existing, crumbling arenas.
“Any crisis situation represents an opportunity to improve ourselves by all means,” added Dal Pino. “There are opportunities to be seized.”