FIGC President Gabriele Gravina insists the Serie A COVID-19 protocol ‘has always worked,’ but the problems arise when the local health authorities over-rule it, as we’ll see today in Udinese vs. Salernitana.
The protocol requires games to go ahead if there are only a handful of positive tests within a matchday squad, which has been the case for almost a full year now.
However, the protocol always included a clause noting the ASL (local health authority) had the ultimate say on whether a team could travel or not.
“The protocol has always worked, but when the ASL intervene, there is not much we can do,” noted Gravina in a press conference.
“The individual regions have autonomy to make rulings. We are trying to dialogue with the local health authorities, but it’s very difficult. We can only hope for a roundtable to make this easier.”
The ASL blocked Salernitana from travelling to Udine, so tonight’s Serie A match cannot go ahead, but the Lega Serie A has not cancelled it because a couple of cases do not breach the protocol.
It is a repeat of last year’s Juventus vs. Napoli situation, which ultimately saw Napoli given an automatic 3-0 defeat and docked one point, only to be cleared on appeal and the game replayed.
That set a precedent, so Salernitana will probably follow the same pattern.
The Premier League has seen half its fixtures called off last week due to new COVID cases, fuelled by the Omicron variant.
Now Italy internationals Lorenzo Insigne of Napoli and Lazio’s Ciro Immobile have tested positive.
The good news is that the players are asymptomatic and we are seeing only a handful of cases, rather than the extreme spread we’ve seen in the Premier League.
That is largely because the Premier League confirmed yesterday that 16 per cent of their players are not vaccinated at all, with just 77 per cent receiving at least two jabs.
Comparatively, 98 per cent of Serie A players were double-jabbed in October.
“There is this explosion of infections for players who already had their second vaccination,” added Gravina.
“Fortunately, the anti-vaxxers don’t have much room here. Hopefully, we can rapidly reach a regression of the pandemic.”