Udinese director Pierpaolo Marino points out they ‘played against Lazio with seven players and the coach out due to COVID’ and therefore Salernitana can’t postpone their game for two cases.
Just like Juventus vs. Napoli last year, the strength of the Serie A COVID protocol is under the spotlight.
Theoretically, tonight’s match should’ve gone ahead at the Dacia Arena, but Salernitana were ordered into quarantine by the local health authorities (ASL), who over-rule the Lega Serie A.
So Udinese and the referees turned up to the stadium only to leave again once it was confirmed Salernitana had not turned up.
Serie A Liveblog: Udinese vs. Salernitana chaos, Genoa vs. Atalanta and Juve vs. Cagliari
“The official position of the Lega, quite rightly, did not postpone the match, so we stuck to the rules and had to attend,” Udinese technical director Marino told DAZN.
“The Lega has the duty to protect the regularity of the season and that means we cannot postpone a match for one or two players testing positive.
“We went to play in Rome against Lazio with seven players and the coach out because of COVID, yet we won the game 3-1.”
This situation has been compared to Juventus vs. Napoli, but Marino insists they are not entirely identical.
Udinese vs. Salernitana the same case as Juventus vs. Napoli
“Salernitana were meant to take a charter plane today and not the regular airline flight yesterday. The ASL ruling should only ban travel on a regular airline and not a private plane, so in theory Salernitana should’ve been able to attend.
“The game could’ve gone ahead. We would’ve preferred to play, obviously, and if the Lega had intervened to postpone the match, they’d risk having to do the same every weekend and that is not in the interests of the clubs, fans or broadcasters.”
There have been several situations in recent months with two or more COVID-19 cases in the matchday squad, but that did not prompt the postponement of a match.
The concern is that different ASL health authorities take different approaches, so there is a lack of consistency throughout the country and therefore the league.
#Udinese, #Marino: ‘Abbiamo fatto di tutto per giocare. Giusta la posizione della Lega, #Salernitana poteva prendere un charter’ #UdineseSalernitana https://t.co/PoS31S0SGZ pic.twitter.com/eFL8kfSkao
— calciomercato.com (@cmdotcom) December 21, 2021
Congrats Udinese on the 3 points. Unlike last year, I don’t see it being overturned as Salernitana will be in Serie B soon.