December 22, (THEWILL) – The fixture between Udinese and Salernitana in Serie A was called off at the last minute after the visitors failed to show up. At the Dacia Arena in Udine, the game was set to begin at 6.30 pm local time.
The officials, as well as Udinese players and staff, arrived for the match, while Salernitana did not due to a travel prohibition.
After one positive COVID-19 test among the players on Monday, the local health authority advised the team not to fly on a commercial airline. Salernitana considered changing their plans today and flying on a private plane, but their intentions were thwarted by further positive test results.
However, because there were not enough COVID-19 cases to make the game unplayable, the game was not officially called off by Serie A.
The league has been overruled by a decision by the local health authority to place the entire Salernitana matchday group under lockdown.
It was reminiscent of last year’s match between Juventus and Napoli, which was marred by the visitors’ failure to show up after their squad was kept in isolation.
Initially, Juventus was given a 3-0 victory and Napoli was docked a point, but the match was re-played after an appeal.
Pierpaolo Marino, the director of Udinese, claims that his team “played against Lazio with seven players and the coach out due to COVID,” and that the league was unable to postpone the match against Salernitana.
“The official position of the Lega, quite rightly, did not postpone the match, so we stuck to the rules and had to attend,” Marino said in making an argument in favour of Udinese.
“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.
“Salernitana was 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.”
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
