Serie A stadiums will remain at 50 per cent capacity at least until the end of this month after the Italian Government delayed discussing an expansion to COVID rules.
The return to 50 per cent is already an improvement, considering the last few weeks before the break for international duty had a limit of just 5,000 spectators per arena.
That was only ever meant to be a short-term circuit breaker to stem the growing tide of cases sparked by the extremely infectious Omicron variant.
It expired and now the stadiums have returned to 50 per cent capacity for Serie A, Champions League, Europa League, Conference League and Coppa Italia fixtures.
The clubs had been hoping to push it back to 75 per cent capacity, which is where the season started, but the Government was delayed by on-going arguments about COVID-19 regulations for schools and the sports side was not even discussed.
This suggests we will not see an increase to 75 per cent capacity until at least the beginning of March.
Only those with a medical-grade mask and Green Pass can enter Italian stadiums, so with proof of vaccination status, and the 50 per cent capacity includes a chequerboard seating pattern to aid social distancing.
Unlike many other leagues, Serie A never returned to 100 per cent capacity after the initial lockdown in March 2020.
And unlike many other league Serie A will take the most hit because of this madness..