Inter Milan CEO Beppe Marotta has vented his fury at the recent schedule change made for Serie A.
Speaking to Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport in an interview published in today’s print edition, via FCInterNews, the Nerazzurri CEO gave a withering assessment of the decision to change around next weekend’s Serie A schedule as “putting player safety at risk.”
The change to next weekend’s Serie A schedule has been made official.
The league has spread the matches out more in order to have fewer concurrent fixtures. The aim is to get the biggest matches in timeslots where they can attract the most viewers.
For Inter, this means that instead of facing Atalanta on Sunday as had been planned, they will host La Dea on Saturday.
This will entail kicking off at the San Siro just 72 hours after the kickoff of the Coppa Italia final. Inter face Fiorentina in the final on Wednesday, in a match that could well go to extra time.
Whether or not Wednesday’s final goes to extra time, it will certainly be a very taxing one physically.
CEO Marotta feels that it is unacceptable for Inter to have to play again with just a couple days in between. Particularly given that there’s no real reason it couldn’t be a different day.
Inter Milan CEO Marotta Furious With Serie A Schedule Change
“It’s incomprehensible to bring a match forward to Saturday that could well have even been played on Monday,” Marotta agured.
“In doing so, it’s putting player safety at risk,” he continued. “With a Coppa Italia final also on the way, which could well go beyond normal time.”
“Given that the Nerazzurri are having their first ‘free’ week in over a month, Zhang’s club expected more understanding,” Marotta stated.
“Even choosing Sunday wouldn’t have caused too much discontent,” he noted. “But instead, they’ve put the needs of television first.”
“The risk to the ‘safety’ of Inter players should be considered above all in light of the Champions League final. It would be a huge regret if we lost players for the match against City due to the physical toll of this compressed period.”
“And then our opponents in the Coppa Italia on the 24th are dealing with the same fixture compression,” Marotta noted. Like Inter, Fiorentina will play in a European final, facing West Ham United in the Europa Conference League final next month.