Italy’s Serie A teams have been given the green light to resume group training but will have to wait until May 28 to know whether the season can resume, Sports Minister Vincenzo Spadafora said on Tuesday.
Spadafora told
Italian television that government scientists had accepted the Italian football
federation’s (FIGC) revised health protocol.
“The Scientific
Technical Committee have approved the FIGC protocol for the resumption of team
training,” Spadafora told Rai.
“It is excellent
news, collective training can now resume.”
Spadafora said he
has scheduled a meeting on May 28 with FIGC president Gabriele Gravina and Lega
Serie A chief Paolo Dal Pino to decide on the return to competition.
“We will then
decide if and when Serie A will restart,” he said.
“The important
thing will be to restart with the firm intention of completing the
championship, then the federations will decide the modalities and formats to be
adopted.”
The minister said
that a controversial measure of isolating team members for two weeks at club
facilities to limit the risk of contagion has been withdrawn.
If a player tests
positive he will be quarantined for two weeks, while the team will be placed in
isolation, and monitored, but can continue to train together.
FIGC president
Gravina welcomed a “decisive step on the path of restarting football in Italy”.
Gravina said that
FIGC Medical Scientific Commission were now working on the protocol for the
return to competition.
The Italian season
has been on hold since March 9 amid the pandemic which has killed more than
32,000 people in Italy.
Serie A teams have
been training individually since May 4, with a government decree suspending all
competition until June 14.
Italian players’
union president Damiano Tommasi said Tuesday that footballers would need at
least a month training before returning to competition.
“Even if some talk
about six, at least four weeks would be needed to avoid injuries,” said
the former Italy and Roma midfielder.
“Caution comes
first because at this point you need real certainties from a medical and health
point of view.”