The Lega Serie A released a statement confirming Juventus v Napoli is due to go ahead as planned, meaning the Partenopei will forfeit if they don’t attend.
“The Lega Serie A confirms that the game Juventus v Napoli for Serie A Week 3 is still planned to kick off on October 4 at 20.45.”
This means Napoli have so far been unable to prove they were banned from travelling to Turin for the match.
The Lega Serie A released a statement confirming Juventus v Napoli is due to go ahead as planned, meaning the Partenopei will forfeit if they don’t attend.
“The Lega Serie A confirms that the game Juventus v Napoli for Serie A Week 3 is still planned to kick off on October 4 at 20.45.”
This means Napoli have so far been unable to prove they were banned from travelling to Turin for the match.
So far, Napoli have not released any statement, including with reference to the sudden change in travel plans, as they had been due to fly out this evening.
It was reported they had been banned from leaving Naples by the ASL, local health authority, in which case that would over-rule the existing Serie A protocol
However, a copy of the ASL statement has been leaked and it does not explicitly ban travel, nor technically place the squad into quarantine.
It asks for fiduciary isolation for those who came into close contact with COVID-19 positive player Piotr Zielinski.
Juventus are also under fiduciary isolation as of today, because two members of staff tested positive for the Coronavirus.
Other teams have also registered positive cases, such as Milan, Atalanta and Torino, but none of them were banned from travelling or taking part in games.
They simply went into a ‘bubble’ to limit the risk of spreading the virus outside of the club and it did not prevent the others who tested negative from playing games.
The protocol also states athletes will have rapid-result tests four hours before the match, those who are negative can play, and then go back into the bubble.
The Serie A and UEFA protocols state that as long as a team has 13 players, including at least one goalkeeper, the match can go ahead.
This is a huge test of what precisely is the protocol in Serie A, which is currently far from clear-cut.
Genoa saw their game with Torino postponed today because they had 22 cases in the club, including 17 players.
Many of them played against Napoli in a 6-0 defeat last Sunday, which is probably why Zielinski and Eljif Elmas later tested positive.
If the ASL order is not a travel ban, then Napoli technically have time to fly out on Sunday morning and still be there to play the game in Turin that evening.
As things stand, if Napoli do not turn up, then Juventus will be given an automatic 3-0 victory.