Serie A, quarantined players and shooting hypotheses

The hypotheses for the restart, training on May 4 and championship in June, but the logistical problems and that of the return of foreigners from abroad must be solved

Some sports, such as basketball, rugby and volleyball, have raised the white flag on the season. We will talk more in depth about the case of minor sports, linked in tandem with box office receipts and the sale of tickets for one’s survival and therefore unable to hypothesize the resumption of the season behind closed doors. The opposite is true for top football, which cannot stop the championship just to not lose the revenues deriving from television rights. A speech that applies to Italy but also to other countries such as Germany in which the teams have started training again and for Spain that will try in every way to save the La Liga. The hypotheses on the restart of the Serie A in the last hours have become stronger and linked above all to phase 2, but perhaps it would be more correct to define it phase 3, in which hypothetically the restrictions on the movement of citizens will be loosened and it will be possible to resume training for the professional teams. Surely the resumption of activities will not take place before May and not only because the government could extend the ban throughout April. There is also at stake the return of foreign players who have left Italy and who returning must be subjected to mandatory quarantine with fourteen days’ isolation. If they started again with training on May 4th, their return would be necessary immediately after Easter.

Serie A players currently abroad

This is the list of players who left Italy after the interruption of the championship and who, upon their return, will have to undergo mandatory isolation for two weeks.

Bologna – Krejci
Cagliari – Olsen
Genoa – Schone, Eriksson, Ankersen, Lerager, Ichazo
Inter – Handanovic, Godin, Brozovic, Moses, Lukaku
Juventus – Szczesny, Khedira, Pjanic, Alex Sandro, Danilo, Douglas Costa, Rabiot, Higuain, Cristiano Ronaldo
Lazio – Lulic, Lukaku, Proto
Parma – Kukca, Kulusevski, Kurtic, Cornelius, Gervinho
Sampdoria – Askildsen, Yoshida, Vieira
Spal – Zukanovic

Juve is the team with the most players abroad, but Inter, Genoa and Lazio also have several. There will be great attention to health conditions and precautions to be taken especially in the first phase of recovery, with different protocols and different health paths according to the different conditions. The positive results will be subjected to particularly accurate medical examinations to establish their health since it is not yet clear whether the virus leaves consequences on the body of those affected. There are different procedures for those who have only experienced symptoms and for those who have not had any. At the moment, not all companies have yet officially recalled their members.

The dates for the recovery

The most probable hypotheses are the possible resumption of training in the week of May 4 and the restart on the weekend of June 7 even if some optimists have gone so far as to hypothesize the date of May 31. With Fifa giving the green light to the possibility of extending contracts beyond 30 June, surely every calendar for the restart will be set with the utmost caution and therefore it is difficult to think that the championship can start again by the end of May and probably also mid-June is too close a date. Furthermore, a problem that will need to be addressed is also the logistical one. If there are no further developments, the Serie A will try to restart in an Italy practically divided in two from the point of view of health conditions. In regions such as Lombardy, Piedmont and Emilia Romagna, a prefect will hardly even take responsibility for authorizing the holding of a game even if it takes place behind closed doors. We are talking about Juventus, Turin, Milan, Inter, Brescia, Atalanta, Spal, Bologna, Sassuolo, Parma, ten clubs, or the exact half of those that make up the Serie A. The hypothesis of playing numerous games on a neutral field in areas of the country at least at risk has already been taken into consideration in some circles but considered inadmissible by several companies. However, it is a scenario to be considered since the field factor, with the public excluded, is objectively canceled and therefore it would not make much difference to play in one city rather than another. One of the many knots to untie in view of a recovery that still remains uphill.