Coronavirus: Serie A team training delayed over medical guidelines

ROME • The start of full training at Italy's professional football clubs was postponed yesterday as they continue to wrangle over the government's medical rules for dealing with the coronavirus.

The Gazzetta dello Sport, state broadcaster Rai and other media all said that the government's technical-scientific committee had not ratified the rules which were announced last week but then questioned by the Serie A clubs and the Italian Football Federation (FIGC).

Several clubs had already decided either to continue with individual training or, at the most, divide players into small groups which would respect social distancing measures.

Serie A clubs hope to resume the league, which has been suspended since March 9, on June 13 but have been locked in to-and-fro discussions with the government over how to do so safely. The main sticking-point is the government's insistence that, if a player tests positive, the whole squad must go into quarantine for 14 days. The clubs argue that isolating the player involved would be sufficient.

"It is obvious that this would not allow us to finish the championship by August because, if there were two to three infected in one or two teams, everything would be systematically blocked for a couple of weeks," Cagliari president Tommaso Giulini told Radio Super Sound. "Since this has a good chance of happening, it would mean that 80 to 90 per cent of us would not be able to finish by Aug 2... We need less rigidity."

The clubs are also opposed to the stipulation that each squad, including coaching and backup staff, undergo a training camp in complete isolation before the league restarts.

They said this would create huge logistical problems. Udinese's technical director Pierpaolo Marino said the uncertainty had made the June 13 start date unrealistic and that more training time was needed.

"It would be madness for footballers and clubs," he told Rai on Sunday.

"We still don't know if from (Monday) we can train in groups or individually, as the current guidelines are not fully applicable. If the league resumes on June 13, there will be a very high risk of injury.

"The German championship restarted yesterday after seven weeks of training and several players have already been injured."

La Liga clubs, which began training in groups of 10 players yesterday, are also monitoring the Bundesliga's return. Spanish football expert Guillem Balague noted in the BBC's Football Daily podcast that the six Bundesliga games on Saturday saw eight players injured.

He added that La Liga is looking into a June 19 restart as the league does not want to rush into a return.

"When the MLS (Major League Soccer) got suspended for four months, there were 12 Achilles injuries in two weeks, when before there were five a year in the previous six seasons," Balague tweeted after football's return. "It is a scientific report that top teams know well."

REUTERS