Italy May Close Doors To All Major Football Games Due To Coronavirus - Sports Minister

Italy May Close Doors to All Major Football Games Due to Coronavirus - Sports Minister

The Italian government will most likely order that large sports events including games of Serie A, the top-tier Italian football league be conducted behind closed doors due to the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country, Sports Minister Vincenzo Spadafora said on Wednesday

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th March, 2020) The Italian government will most likely order that large sports events including games of Serie A, the top-tier Italian football league be conducted behind closed doors due to the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country, Sports Minister Vincenzo Spadafora said on Wednesday.

"The championship will go ahead, but we are moving towards the idea of playing games behind closed doors," Spadafora told reporters, as quoted by the Football Italia news portal.

Earlier in the day, regional authorities indefinitely postponed the second-leg matches of the Italian football cup semifinals between Juventus-Milan and Napoli-Inter, which were initially scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.

Last weekend, Serie A rescheduled five games, which were initially set to be played behind closed doors, for May 13. The decision has caused major controversy among top football officials over unequal schedules and playing conditions for different teams. Since late February, several football games have already been played behind closed doors in the country's northern regions, where a large number of COVID-19 cases has been registered.

Italy currently has the highest number of coronavirus cases in Europe. On Tuesday, the head of the country's defense service, Angelo Borrelli, said at a briefing that the number of COVID-19 cases in Italy had topped 2,500, with the death toll reaching 79 people.