Skip to main content

Cancelling season would be the death of Italian football – FIGC president

NewsColony
Cancelling season would be the death of Italian football – FIGC president

The official has vowed to never scrap the campaign while still in charge of the sport in the country

Italian Football Federation (FIGC) president Gabriele Gravina said he will never cancel the Serie A season as it “would be the death of Italian football”.

The 2019-20 Serie A campaign has been suspended since March due to the coronavirus pandemic, but Italy prime minister Giuseppe Conte announced over the weekend that professional sports teams can resume training on May 18.

It still remains to be seen when, and if, the season will restart after France moved to scrap the 2019-20 Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 campaigns.

Gravina, however, vowed to never cancel the season amid ongoing debate over the resumption of the campaign in Italy.

“As long as I’m president of the FIGC, I’ll never sign off stopping the season because that would be the death of Italian football,” Gravina said during a virtual meeting with Serie B outfit Ascoli.

“I’m protecting the interests of everyone so, I repeat, I refuse to sign off a total shutdown, unless there are objective conditions relating to the health of everyone involved, but someone has to tell me clearly and stop me from moving forward.

“With a total shutdown, the system would lose €700-800 million. If we were to play behind closed doors, the losses would be €300m, and if we restarted with fans, the losses would amount to €100-150m, even though the latter isn’t viable.

“We have strong contractual responsibilities towards international partners and institutions, such as UEFA and FIFA.”

Defending champions Juventus were a point clear of Lazio through 26 games when Serie A came to a halt.

Lazio owner Claudio Lotito recently said he would accept a one-off match with Juventus to decide the Serie A title if the season cannot be resumed.

“Yes, I would accept it. But I never asked myself the question. Starting the season again disadvantages us in a way,” he told La Repubblica

“We had made a choice; believing that we could not play on three fronts, we had sacrificed the Europa League, because for timing and transfers it was the most uncomfortable competition.

“So, we would be able to play once a week while other teams played twice. If we start again, we would all play twice a week, so we would lose that advantage.”

There have been more than three million confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide, with over 227,300 deaths. In Italy, the death toll has exceeded 27,600, while the country has seen more than 203,000 cases.

Source: Goal

The post Cancelling season would be the death of Italian football – FIGC president appeared first on NewsColony.
NewsColony



from WordPress https://ift.tt/2xliBkX

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chinese stars moonlighting as live-streamers

NewsColony Chinese stars moonlighting as live-streamers Li JIaqi and Yang Mi joined forces to sell products online during coronavirus, blurring the boundaries between conventional celebrities and live streamers. Photo: @TrendingWeibo/Twitter The line between Chinese celebrities and live streamers continues to blur these days. Luxury brands are expanding their pool of friend-of-the-brand endorsements with top live streamers – Louis Vuitton, for example, tapped both actress Song Jia and “lipstick king” live streamer Li Jiaqi for its much anticipated 520 Chinese Valentine’s Day campaign. Celebrities, actors and singers are jumping on the bandwagon to test out their commercial values on e-commerce platforms, with Yang Mi, Li Xiaolu and Michelle Ye Xuan just a few of the screen stars moonlighting on live streaming portals including Taobao, TikTok and Red Book. So why are Chinese celebrities so eager to embrace the battlefield of live streaming e-commerce, and how are they getting on so...

Two hundred thousand Northern Beaches residents prepare for lockdown amid panic buying

NewsColony Two hundred thousand Northern Beaches residents prepare for lockdown amid panic buying Sydney’s Northern Beaches have entered  lockdown as the coronavirus cluster in the area grows to 41 cases. From 5pm on Saturday until midnight on Wednesday, the local government area will revert to lockdown orders issued across the state in March. People will only be permitted to leave their homes for five basic reasons: to seek medical care, exercise, grocery shop, work or for compassionate care reasons.  An additional 23 cases were recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm on Friday, including 10 already announced.    People line up to shop at a Woolworths supermarket in Avalon (pictured) on Saturday before the Northern Beaches goes into a lockdown at 5pm until midnight Wednesday  Two women (pictured) leave a Coles supermarket in Avalon before being required to follow stay-at-home guidelines  The toilet paper section of the Woolworths at...

Players who breached social-distancing rules put NRL restart at risk, Federal Sport Minister says

NewsColony Players who breached social-distancing rules put NRL restart at risk, Federal Sport Minister says NRL players guilty of breaking social-distancing laws have put the league’s planned return to action at risk, according to the Federal Sport Minister. Key points: The NRL wants to restart its 2020 season — suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic — on May 28 However the league has had to deal players flouting social-distancing rules The National Cabinet will meet on Friday to discuss its approach to resuming elite and community sport The league’s bold bid to resume its competition copped a major blow this week when three of its stars were fined for flouting social-distancing rules . Latrell Mitchell, Josh Addo-Carr ($50,000 each) and Nathan Cleary ($10,000) were also slapped with suspended fines by the NRL for bringing the game into disrepute. The incidents gave critics ammunition to question the league’s ability to follow strict protocol measures required to relau...