ROME • Quarantined in Turin, Italy's Torino failed to travel to Rome for their Serie A game with Lazio on Tuesday, with the hosts awarded victory after a 45-minute wait.

Regional authorities in Turin placed Torino under quarantine after eight of their players tested positive for the British variant of Covid-19, but the Italian league refused to postpone the match.

After a 45-minute wait for the scheduled 6.30pm (1.30am, Wednesday in Singapore) kick-off, Lazio players were informed by the referee that Torino were considered to have forfeited and that the match had been abandoned.

"The decision by the league to not postpone the Lazio-Torino game... speaks for itself," said Torino president Urbano Cairo, who accused the league of "ignoring reality".

"We're going to see what happens now. It's obvious we will appeal. We will take all possible recourse."

The situation mirrors a previous episode when Napoli were hit by a Covid-19 outbreak in October and failed to travel for their league match at Juventus.

The league refused to cancel the fixture and awarded the defending champions a 3-0 win, although the Italian Olympic Committee has since overturned this.

Conversely, the meeting between Juventus and Sassuolo was called off just a week ago for the very same reason.

Head of the Italian football federation Gabriele Gravina had earlier called on the league authorities to clarify their position.

"This is an act of God, there's no way they (Torino) can play, and the league needs to get their ideas straight," he said. "Imagine if a team decide to go ahead and break their quarantine order, it would be breaking the law."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE