T
he new Serie A
season was only
three weeks old
when Italian football
crashed head-on
into a serious COVID
case, prompting no
small alarm, polemics and concern
about the rest of the season.
It happened on Sunday, October 4,
matchday three, when Napoli launched
a bombshell by failing to turn up in
Turin for their away game against
championsJuventus. Napoli claimed
that, because two of their players
had tested positive for COVID, the
Campania regional health authorities
(ASL) had banned them from
travelling.
Two days earlier, Napoli owner,
Aurelio De Laurentis, had suggested
by text message toJuventus president
Andrea Agnelli that maybe the game
should be postponed.Juve responded
by saying that they would stick to the
Football Federation’s COVID protocol
(drawn up inJune with the Ministry of
Health), which stipulates that only if a
club has ten positive cases can it ask
for a postponement.
Thus,Juventus stuck to the rules
and turned up for a game that they
knew was not going to happen. The
whole saga prompted two obvious
immediate questions. Firstly, had
Napoli really been banned by the
health authorities? Secondly, would
Juventus now be awarded a 3-0
“walkover”, given Napoli’s no-show?
This drama began on the day before
the scheduled match when Napoli’s
Polish midfielder, Piotr Zielinski, tested
positive for COVID-19, apparently
prompting the Napoli team doctor,
Raffaele Canonico, to check out
the situation with the regional health
authority, the Naples ASL. The reply
was immediate: nobody who was in
quarantine because they had been
in contact with a COVID-positive
person should travel. Thus, Napoli
were banned.
Ironically, on that same Saturday,
Juventus discovered that two members
of their staff, not players, had also
tested positive.Juve, too, contacted
their local ASL, seeking advice. The
Turin ASL, however, replied that under
the terms of an “exemption” stipulatedby the Federation-Ministry of Health
protocol,Juventus could still go ahead
and play.
And there’s the rub, that protocol.
Essentially, it provides football an
exemption from the COVID rules and
regulations, as they apply to the rest of
Italy. Whereas the average citizen who
has been in contact with a COVID-
positive is required to self-isolate –and, above all, not travel around –
this does not apply to footballers.
The protocol essentially calls for
the infected players to be sent home
to self-isolate, whilst the rest of the
squad goes into a quarantine bubble.
Those players who test negative for
COVID-19canstilltravelandtake
part in Serie A games.
According to the protocol, then,
Napoli could have played the game,
minus their infected players (of course
(by this stage, Napoli’s Eljif Elmas had
also tested positive). The problem,
however, is that there are special
circumstances in which the infamousprotocol can be overridden –
for example in the case of a local
lockdown or of a huge surge in the
number of COVID cases in a specific
region.
Thus, even though the protocol
seems to be a “Get Out OfJail” card
for football, theJuventus v Napoli case
proves that the card does not always
work. The Napoli ASL was perfectly
entitled, indeed duty bound, to
intervene, if it considered the Napoli
away match in Turin a health risk.Game off...Juventus
arrived at the ground
to play the gameJuventus stuck to the rules and
turned up for a game that they
knew was not going to happenItaly
Local government rules clash with Serie A protocols in Napoli no-show
Headliners
Positive...Napoli
central midfielder
Piotr Zielinski