Juventus took to the field despite no opposition arriving to compete last night, with Napoli having been told not to travel, and chairman Andrea Agnelli has moved to defend his club’s decision.
Earlier in the week, the fixture was placed under a cloud of doubt when Napoli received two positive test results, while their most recent opponents Genoa have as many as 19 positive cases at present, including five non-playing staff members.
Napoli insist that they attempted to board a plane to travel to Turin to take on Juve yesterday afternoon, but were not permitted to travel by local authorities ESPN reported.
Juventus had two positive COVID-19 results with non-playing staff, but still took to the field for the clash, despite the likelihood that Napoli weren’t to show.
Chairman Andrea Agnelli has defended his decision to take to the field however.
“There are very clear protocols for these situations,” Agnelli told Sky Sport Italia (as translated by Forza Italian Football). “It was expected that a situation like this would come up.
“The FIGC protocol for matches in Italy applies in this case, as was approved by the Ministry of Health.
“We know what to do and that is to go into isolation. In our case the technical team, which includes the entire playing staff isolates, in order to continue training and the ability to play matches.
“It is very clear. And when we knew of the two positives within the team, we immediately put the group into a bubble in order to play the match against Napoli.”
Lega Serie A had earlier stated that the fixture was still to go ahead, which obviously did not happen, but an appeal looks likely to follow.
Is there any chance that Napoli could persuade the FA to rearrange the fixture?
Patrick
