Italian Government Suspends All Sports Activity in The Country Until April 3rd

During a meeting that was held on Monday, CONI (the Italian Olympic Committee) declared that the committee wanted all sporting activity in Italy to be suspended until April 3rd.

This was done after a joint meeting between several Italian sporting authorities, and the Secretary-General of the federation, Carlo Mornati.

The official stance of that committee is that all sporting activities in the peninsula are to be suspended immediately. The ban would apply to sports at all levels. In order for this to happen, however, the government would have to issue a Prime Ministerial Decree that would override the current one. The current order states that all sporting activities can continue, but they must be played behind closed doors.

The committee has also asked the various, regional governing bodies of the country “to standardize” the individual policies they’ve put in place to deal with the crisis. CONI also wants the regional bodies to have their policies align with the prime minister’s orders. The intent of this is to streamline the response to the pandemic, in order to better deal with the crisis.

As of 9:45 p.m. (or somewhere around that time), Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, has declared that all sporting events in the country have officially been postponed. In addition to this, he declared that all of Italy was a ‘red zone’, meaning that the entire peninsula would be subjected to the same restrictions Lombardia is currently under. As per Sky, it means that no one will be allowed to travel within the country except for work and for emergencies.

The measure effectively means that there will be no Serie A matches for either the men or the women.

It will also mean that the Milan Women’s ill-fated fixtures with Fiorentina will once again, be postponed. Once again, we’ll have to wait to see if Milan can (or are willing) to get past them in the Coppa Italia. It also means that we’ll have to wait a little while longer to see their league clash. The league game against the Viola will be an important one, as the outcome of it will most likely determine who will play in next season’s Champions League.

Their much-anticipated game against Juventus will also be postponed as well. That game was slated for March 21st and was set to be played in Torino. Now, the official date of the tie is up in the air.

The Italian women will also have two qualifying fixtures for the Women’s Euros in 2021 in April. The matches will be played on April 10th and 14th, respectively. With the government’s decree in place, it means that Serie A Femminile won’t resume play until April 18th.

As has been noted before, Italy has been one of the countries that has been the hardest hit by the coronavirus. It has recorded the highest number of cases and recorded the most fatalities outside of China.

Italy currently has a total of 9,172 infected by the virus, along with 463 deaths.

With this in mind, the moratorium on all public gatherings in the country is not surprising. It’s also quite understandable.

In addition to this, the FIGC will also be holding a press conference on Tuesday. This will most certainly be one of the items on the governing body’s agenda.

More updates about this will also be made as soon as the information is available to us.