In an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, which appeared in today’s print edition, Inter president Steven Zhang has explained why he went after Lega Serie A president Paolo Dal Pino in the way he did via social media.

Zhang took to social media platform Instagram a few days ago and posted a strong worded message to his Instagram story heavily criticising Dal Pino for his handling of the current situation which has come about as a result of the ongoing Coronavirus epidemic.

Zhang blasted Dal Pino and even went so far as to personally insult him by calling him a clown.

“I wanted to make my voice heard. For me it really is important, especially in this moment, that the people who decide will put the health and safety ahead of everything,” he said.

He then went to stress the importance of health in this current situation and shared his belief that he has a responsibility to share the truth.

“Health is the most important thing to consider, before any other interest. You can’t fiddle with the calendar and risk people to crowd in a stadium, endangering safety and health.

“All this is not a game and it’s not a joke. It’s not acceptable that you take even the slightest risk when it comes to health and for this I feel, as President of a football club and part of the sport industry, I have a mission and the responsibility of telling people the truth and making sure the correct message is passed.

“To let the fans know, whether they support Inter, Juventus, Milan or any other team in Italy or around the world, health and safety comes first and that we must take all the precautions and be very careful.”

Zhang then went on to reiterate that he is far from happy with Lega Serie A for the way they are playing around with the Serie A calendar.

“I don’t accept that you play around with the calendar of competitions, changing dates at the end or making a game seem more important than safety.

“Sometimes you have to oppose the desire of the masses to follow an event if it’s not safe. We should always put public safety first and then everything else is secondary, it comes later.

“There is no match, game, tournament regularity that comes before health. I will continue to insist and underline these issues both in public and on social media.

In conclusion the youngest president in Inter history said: “Contagions are growing rapidly. We must not panic, but have great responsibility and attention: safety and health first of all.”