Inter president Steven Zhang has admitted that the club have been able to learn a lot about how to deal with Coronavirus due to owners Suning’s experience in dealing with it in China, where the virus originated.

“Obviously, everyone is taking extra measures as companies. As a sports organization that has a great responsibility on society, we must make sure that everyone understands how safety and public health are the most critical and important thing, in the face of everything,” Zhang, explained in an interview with China Global Television Network.

“We, from our experience in China, having our main business there and seeing how employees and managers in China are experiencing a marked improvement after the critical moments, we learned many things to combat this situation in Italy.”

Zhang, who became the youngest president in Inter history back in 2018, then proceeded to discuss the impact of having to play games behind closed doors for at least the next month as the result of an Italian government order.

Due to the order, Inter will play home games with Sassuolo and Parma in an empty stadium and this weekend’s Derby D’Italia away to Juventus will also be played under the same conditions.

“Definitely having a closed stadium will make the show less beautiful, just as the impact on revenues and ticketing will be less but overall, a company, faced with such a situation, cannot think too much about these factors because we believe that once the virus situation is overcome, consumer confidence and behaviour will also be restored

He then spoke on the problem of racism and what the Nerazzurri club have done to try and combat it following several high profile incidents this season and last season with Inter striker Romelu Lukaku among those to have been targeted by some fans.

“We have a responsibility to give the right message, follow the right mission and take the right measures to promote positive energy all over the world.

“We have done many digital campaigns to educate people and make them understand this philosophy, I think the initiatives are giving the right effect. People interact and collaborate with us to spread positive energy around the countries of the world.”