Pierpaolo Marino was furious that Udinese were forced to play Atalanta tonight, despite the serious COVID situation affecting the squad.
The Udine side lost 6-2 at home to Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta, with the team suffering from a number of absences due to COVID infections. The team’s match against Fiorentina on Thursday was called off due to the outbreak but they were still forced to play only three days later.
Speaking after the loss to Atalanta, Marino explained why he is the one discussing the match.
“It is impossible to make a technical comment, for the simple reason that there was no match. I’m here, instead of coaches and players, because what could they comment?”
The Udinese director was infuriated that the team were still forced to play despite the serious COVID situation impacting their squad.
“The players and staff were forced to gather on Sunday mornings like at the bar tournament, some just negative after two weeks of stop. On the bench there were youngsters from the Primavera team who had been out for 20 days.
“The critical situation of Udinese is in front of everyone’s eyes. In 44 years of work I have never seen things like this. It’s a very embarrassing situation, those who decide don’t care about the situation in Udine.
“The result that will remain in the annals will be remembered as a disgrace, but the players and the coach have been heroes, good to do what they could.”
Marino continuing expressing his frustration, highlighting that the reason why they were forced to play was for the broadcasters.
“We just have to ask ourselves why all this happened. It is said that in this way we want to save the broadcasters, but what show was there today?
“Today there was no Udinese on the pitch, who had beaten Cagliari 4-0 before Christmas. We had to send players on the pitch who were in quarantine and now we’ll see if there are consequences for their health.”
Finally, Marino spoke about why their match against Fiorentina was called off.
“On the day of the match against Fiorentina, two more of our players tested positive. The local health authority did well not to send us off, we would have risked infecting our opponents. Let’s be careful when we say that we want to save football in this way.”
Multiple Udinese players have suffered from COVID in recent weeks, with the Omicron variant of the virus having a serious impact on this Serie A season.
Marino furioso: "È stato un martirio. Questo non è calcio, sembra il torneo dei bar" #Udinese https://t.co/Vj57ASu47l
— La Gazzetta dello Sport (@Gazzetta_it) January 9, 2022