Sandra Zampa, an Italian government undersecretary in the ministry of health, has confirmed that the green light for football to return in Italy is getting closer to being given.
Football at all levels in the country has been on hold for around about two months as a result of the ongoing global Coronavirus crisis, the worst of which has now passed in Italy, which entered into phase two of the recovery process at the beginning of this week.
Athletes were allowed to return to training on an optional individual basis using training facilities at the start of this week and the aim is to allow group training to resume in 10 days time on May 18.
It still remains to be seen though when the seasons may be able to resume but all 20 Serie A clubs recently voted unanimously in favour of resuming and finishing the season if possible to do so.
“We are moving towards a solution and it is the solution that football fans want. The green light is not yet there, but we are heading in the right direction,” Zampa explained to Italian radio station Radio Punto Nuovo this afternoon.
“For now the discussion is about individual training, today everyone will come back to discuss the problem and the way of the solution has been imagined as a sort of seclusion of the team.
“We have to take into account another element: what will happen with this reopening and we know that it takes about 15 days to know its effects. Will the epidemic remain under control? If yes, it opens more, including football.
“The doors of training grounds will open, team training will take place and after 15 days the epidemiological data will tell us if we can take another step.
“So you can imagine going back to play, therefore is a point of mediation that is being done for the protection of players and teams with all the people involved. This is the Italian model that guarantees the health of all components: they enter healthy and must remain healthy.”
