Napoli not allowed to travel to Torino for match against Juventus
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There are reports Napoli will not travel to Turin tonight as planned for the Sunday evening match against Juventus, as COVID-19 cases pile up at both clubs. According to Il Napolista and reporter Carlo Alvino, the local authorities in Naples have decided it is unsafe for the Napoli squad to travel to Turin at this time.
Football Italia reports that there were two positive cases within the squad, for Piotr Zielinski and Eljif Elmas, along with a member of staff. More could well follow considering their most recent opponents Genoa have 22 positive cases, including 17 players, most of them who featured at the Stadio San Paolo six days ago.
Juventus also have COVID-19 problems, as two members of staff tested positive today.
The plan was for Napoli to travel tonight and have more tests in the morning.
However, the local health authority – ASL – reportedly decided it was not safe to do so, considering how much Napoli had been exposed to the Genoa outbreak.
There is now a clash of protocols, because the Lega Serie A said it would adopt the UEFA protocol for COVID cases, ie not postponing a match as long as a club still had 13 players available including one goalkeeper.
However, the local health authority has its own set of protocols and these appear to be over-riding the sporting ones. Genoa’s match with Torino was meant to be this evening, but was postponed due to the outbreak within the Grifone camp.
What happens next?
According to Football Italia Lega Serie A has adopted the UEFA protocol for dealing with COVID outbreaks, specifically that as long as a team has 13 players available including at least one goalkeeper, the match must go ahead. n theory, that would see Napoli forfeit the game with a 3-0 defeat.
However, as it is not Napoli’s choice to miss the fixture and a decision made by the local health authorities who are not allowing them to travel, the club can argue it is beyond their control. Indeed, in the rules published by the Lega Serie A, it states their protocol is adopted ‘save for eventual action from local authorities.’
