Gabriele Gravina, the president of the Italian football federation, has insisted that football must be ready to resume if the green light is given for the season to resume by medical professionals.
Due to the ongoing global Coronavirus pandemic, football at all levels in Italy has been on hold for close to a month now and is likely to remain on hold for the remainder of this month too at the least.
Some Serie A clubs have as much as 13 games to still play and there have been a number of suggestions as to how the season could possibly resume and conclude.
“If and when we get the green light to gradually resume the sport, the world of football must be ready. That is the aim of our medical commission,” he said at the end of the meeting of the Federal Medical Commisson as quoted by Football-Italia.net.
“Considering the role that football plays in Italian society, I am convinced that we can give an important contribution to the whole country.”
There have been various reports in the media in the past few days regarding the possible resumption of training with reports suggesting it could resume at the beginning of next month with squads likely having to adhere to the current guidelines.
Gravina then went on to add: “The protocol concerning footballers and members of staff already infected and ‘cured’ of COVID-19 was also discussed. The diagnostic tests indicated for this category will follow a protocol appropriate to the clinical severity of the infection suffered.
“In the discussion, it was recommended that ‘team groups’ should initially meet in ‘closed’ environments, which would obviously need to be sanitised and in line with all the hygienic-behavioural norms, even for those who do not belong to the restricted group.”
