The Italian National Institute of Health (ISS) says it ‘wouldn’t be in favour’ of the season resuming.
The FIGC, Serie A and sports minister Vincenzo Spadafora are all in agreement over completing the 2019-20 campaign as soon as it is safe enough to do so.
It had been suggested that training could start again once the first phase of lockdown ends on May 3, with a view to possibly ending the season by August.
However, the ISS, the leading technical-scientific body of the Italian health service, believes 2019-20 should be written off.
“Football’s a contact sport so there is risk of transmission. Someone proposed close monitoring of the players, with tests almost every day,” Giovanni Rezza, director of its infectious disease department, told reporters.
“It sincerely seems like a bit of a tight turnaround to me, plus we’re almost in May. I’m a Roma fan so I’d call the whole thing off!
“If I had to give a technical opinion, it wouldn’t be a favourable one and I think the Scientific and Technical Committee would agree.
“After that, politics will decide.”
It will be interesting to see if the FIGC and Serie A takes the advice from ISS or goes against it. It doesn’t sound like they will, as at the ISS news broke, the Italian Football Federation were hoping to test all Serie A players for coronavirus in May before restarting the league.
‘As soon as the conditions are right, we’ll finish the championship,’ said federation president Gabriele Gravina.
‘Soon, there will be a meeting. We will establish the procedure which we will then communicate,’ he explained to Sky Sports Italia.
‘We will start, I hope, at the beginning of May with tests to ensure that players are negative and training can follow.’
He added: ‘Will we play through the summer? We don’t have a deadline but the idea is to finish the championships.’
