The Lega Serie A confirmed it will meet with the FIGC, tomorrow to discuss ‘reaching a shared protocol’ with the Government, otherwise training won’t resume.
Group training was given the all-clear from May 18 after the FIGC (Italian Football Federation) accepted the requested changes to the medical protocol.
Serie A then set a provisional date to resume the games from June 13.
The Lega Serie A confirmed it will meet with the FIGC, tomorrow to discuss ‘reaching a shared protocol’ with the Government, otherwise training won’t resume.
Group training was given the all-clear from May 18 after the FIGC (Italian Football Federation) accepted the requested changes to the medical protocol.
Serie A then set a provisional date to resume the games from June 13.
However, 24 hours later, it’s all back up in the air again because everyone from the clubs to players, agents and medics protested that the protocol as it stands is “impracticable” and in some cases “impossible” to stick to.
The Lega Serie A released a statement this evening confirming it will meet with the FMSI (Federation of Italian Sports Medics) and FIGC to “together identify a constructive path of discussion with the Minister for Health, the Minister for Sport, the CTS (technical science committee), and reach a shared protocol.”
The FIGC agreed to the changes without consulting the clubs or more importantly the club medics.
The major sticking point is the automatic 15-day quarantine for the whole group if just one person between squad and staff tests positive for COVID-19.
They believe the pandemic has reached a point in Italy where they can simply isolate the person and perform more blanket tests on the others.
This was the reason the previous two proposals had been rejected by the Government and CTS, so it’s not clear how they are going to resolve the issue with group training set to start from Monday.
Another problem is that clubs maintain the medics cannot be considered legally liable if someone contracts COVID-19.
The only way to make it work would be to effectively put the squad and staff into a protective training ground bubble and not let them out until August, but many clubs are simply not equipped to do that, even if the people involved were to agree.