The FIGC President Gabriele Gravina feels “football ends up being a victim of itself” and has claimed a situation like this is why “we asked to bring Serie A forward”.
The coronavirus outbreak has caused chaos in Italian football and we are entering a month where football will be played behind closed doors and the calendar has been amended.
Last summer, the President points out, the FIGC asked the Lega Serie A to start the tournament earlier ahead of a busy summer with Euro 2020 on the horizon.
The FIGC President Gabriele Gravina feels “football ends up being a victim of itself” and has claimed a situation like this is why “we asked to bring Serie A forward”.
The coronavirus outbreak has caused chaos in Italian football and we are entering a month where football will be played behind closed doors and the calendar has been amended.
Last summer, the President points out, the FIGC asked the Lega Serie A to start the tournament earlier ahead of a busy summer with Euro 2020 on the horizon.
The FIGC chief has pointed out that football’s great following also provides complications in certain situations and insisted that they care about the public health.
“We will adapt in the respect of the general interest, we must go on following the directives of the government,” he told Corriere della Sera. “It’s an emergency that adds to the emergency, we will carefully evaluate today with Minster [of Sports Vincenzo] Spadafora to understand how to do it.
“Football is a sport that feeds passion and interests out of the ordinary and sometimes ends up being a victim of itself but represents an essential component of the country – both socially and economically.
“We have been serious in the discussion with the government and it’s not true that football doesn’t have public health and general interests at heart. I renewed the invitation to unity and a sense of responsibility, both within the Lega and outside.
“It’s precisely in this spirit that in the summer we had asked to bring the start of Serie A forward by a week or two. If the Lega had listened to us, we wouldn’t have been in this situation.”
Gravina has not yet any “indications” pointing towards postponing the upcoming Euro 2020, where Italy should be one of the many hosts of the competition and said they are still planning to play the Coppa Italia Final in Rome.
“At the moment there are no indications that make us think about a postponement,” he added. “UEFA will be following the evolution of the European situation carefully.
“We will try to play the Coppa Italia Final in Rome, it would be an extraordinary message of restarting.”