While the specter of a new lockdown, more or less temperate, hovers over Italy, due to the very heavy numbers on infections from Coronavirus, the world of football is working to avoid having to stop, with all the consequences that this would also have on the international activity of the clubs.
The changes to the protocol approved by the Football Association go in this direction. The news in the “Update of training and competition protocols for professional football teams, the Women’s Serie A and the referees for the season 2020/2021“, For which the green light of the Italian health authorities has arrived on the basis of updated epidemiological data and new scientific findings, provide the shortening of the isolation period for the members of the team and also positive results the ability to access quick pads.
According to what the FIGC itself communicates on its official website, the companies of A league, B, C, of women’s football and the Italian Referees Association will be able to use quick swabs both for the tests scheduled within 48 hours of the games, and for those that the team groups are called to perform a few hours after a match in case of positiveness ascertained internally.
As for the period of isolation, referring to the latest circulars of the Ministry of Health dated 12 October, the players and staff members who are infected will no longer have to observe the canonical 14-day quarantine period and wait for a negative swab.
The symptomatic can be readmitted as a group after a 10-day stop, three of which were asymptomatic, with a negative test being performed. As for the long-term positives, in case of absence of symptoms for at least a week, the isolation period will be interrupted after the expiry of 21 days.
The hope is that all this will be enough to avoid interrupting the championships as happened in March, but no one can be certain given the situation in the making.
Indeed, the words of the president of the League Paolo Dal Pino, interviewed by the ‘Corriere della Sera’, as well as sounding the alarm on the economic health of Italian football, even leave open the possibility of changing the format of the championship in case of emergency, with recourse to playoff:
“We are very close to the economic and financial disaster. If we do not have a breather through refreshments and from the entry into the scene of the funds in the media company of the Lega, the risk that the system will stop is very high. Playoffs? I speak every day with Gabriele Gravina. We have more simulations on the table. I hope that the championship can be concluded regularly, if instead other factors intervene and a suspension of the tournament is necessary, the assembly will express its opinion on the change of format “.
OMNISPORT | 31-10-2020 11:33
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