“There are no reasons to ban the match with postponement of the match to another date. The Observatory also assessed that law enforcement resources were allocated for the conduct of this evening’s football match and were not deducted in any way from those involved in relief activities for the population affected by the flood”. Thus, with a press release dated 3.40 pm, “having consulted the provincial public security authorities of Florence, on the compliant advice of the Serie A National Football League”, theObservatory on sporting events of the Department of Public Security confirmed tonight’s match between Fiorentina and Juventus at the Artemio Franchi stadium in Firenze. Despite the controversy and the request of the Viola fans to postpone the match after the bad weather brought the whole of Tuscany to its knees and in many areas thousands of people remain without electricity and we are struggling with the damage which for the Region amounts to half a billion EUR. But “the match does not interfere or affect the rescue activities for the Tuscan population underway in these hours”, the prefect of Florence assured in a note Francesca Ferrandino. “It will be managed according to the safety scheme prepared in recent days and there will be no subtraction of men and vehicles”
The Serie A league was harshly criticized for not suspending the event, and on social media it is the fans who are the first to blame the leaders. But politics also gets involved. “This morning I proposed postponing Fiorentina Juventus to concentrate efforts on the flood and the areas still in difficulty. Representatives of all parties supported my request. The ministers Piantedosi and Abodi However, they wrote to me that they don’t intend to block the match because the Football League doesn’t want it,” he tweeted Matteo Renzi after confirmation of the event. The idea that the match won’t take away strength from the emergency doesn’t convince him: “Playing means sending hundreds of people from the police force, firefighters and the world of volunteers to the Campo di Marte. I think this choice is an insult that our land did not deserve. I note that those who decide are so subordinate to the world of football that they accept even the most inhumane and inappropriate decisions: I will a question in Parliament”.
But even before touching the government, the controversy had brought Palazzo Vecchio into play. In a first tweet, Renzi attacked the “Institutions” who, unlike the Viola fans, “are doing something profoundly wrong”. The colleague and deputy of Italia Viva Francesco Bonifazi he reiterates more explicitly: “Mayor Nardella make an ordinance. If he doesn’t do it, let the Government take care of it. First the relief efforts, then we will think about the business of the Football League.” The mayor of Florence didn’t like the thrust, Dario Nardella. “The decision on whether or not to play is up to the Serie A football league alone. The Municipality has no jurisdiction,” he said in a video posted on Instagram from the flooded areas. “I find political controversy really out of place when we are all in an emergency rolling up our sleeves to help families and companies in difficulty and to remove the mud from the streets”. Then on Facebook, thanking Curva Fiesolehe further clarified: “I’ve been on the phone since yesterday with the President of the Serie A League clearly posing the problem of the opportunity to postpone the match. I talked about it too with Minister Piantedosi. I hope everyone’s common sense prevails.”
“If the Football League does not intervene to postpone the match, between now and tonight, it will celebrate for the umpteenth time the abysmal distance between itself and reality,” he also declared earlier in the day Mauro Berruto, deputy and sports manager of the Democratic Party. Shortly afterwards, on the sidelines of a press conference, the position of the Democratic governor of Tuscany also arrived, Eugenio Giani: “It is appropriate to postpone the match”. And then: “I am inspired by unity and the search for energy, everyone must move with their own will to do what they deem appropriate therefore I respect everyone because I want everyone’s respect for what we do and precisely for what we do I thank the young people from the Curva Fiesole who tonight instead of at the match will be in Campi Bisenzio shoveling”. Words that had earned Renzi’s gratitude: “I thank President Giani for asking for the postponement with us. Anyone who thinks that football is just business should rediscover a minimum of humanity, for the sake of decency.”
But “today’s episode will remain an emblem of deaf and blind institutions: a statement from the ultras was necessary asking for it to be postponed”, he underlined in a note Filiberto Zaratti, deputy of the Greens and Left Alliance. The former goalkeeper of Fiorentina, Milan and Azzurri was tougher, Giovanni Galli, today regional councilor for the League in Tuscany. “We fully support the appeal, unfortunately unheard, of the Fiorentina fans,” he writes in a note in which he defines it as a “clear mistake not to decree the move”. He attacks the football league: “We believe that the football leaders have missed yet another opportunity to make a dignified impression in the face of a tragedy of such vast proportions.” Then governor Giani: “As for the President, we hoped that he would take a clear position in favor of the postponement; instead, stating that the match was not a priority, he joined those who equally strongly wanted the show, despite everything, to go ahead anyway.”