For the decisive match of the Rainbow Cup the ok from the Ministry of Health does not arrive: the club takes note of it “with immense regret”
TREVISO. Ice shower on the enthusiasm of the Benetton fans who were already preparing to go to Monigo, Saturday at 6.15 pm, to enjoy the key game of the Rainbow Cup against Connacht: the Ministry of Health has not yet granted the derogation. And this is equivalent to a no: even if the permit arrived today it would be too late. In fact, to allow access to a thousand people, the organization would have needed well over three days.
Benetton was counting on it and did nothing to hide the disappointment, yesterday it announced “with immense regret”, despite “the promptness and strong will to welcome its fans back”.
The president of the Leoni Amerino Zatta especially regrets: «Our request started last week but we did not receive any directive from the government, so as there were no technical times we had to give up. I am enormously sorry, never before would we have needed people at the stadium like now ». Why football, basketball, tennis yes and rugby no? «In truth, I would not like to enter into the merits of why the others yes and we do not, will have had their motivations. Like Minister Speranza, who did not consider opening the doors of Monigo. Unfortunately nothing can be done, too late ».
Probably Benetton-Connacht was not considered a sufficiently important event to give the exemption. «I don’t know what the criteria are for determining whether a sporting event is more or less important than others. We take note of it, we are sorry but clearly it did not depend on us ».
From 1 June there will be no exceptions. And it will soon be official that the Rainbow final will be on the 19th in Monigo. «We will see which legislation will come into force: based on what they tell us, Benetton will do everything possible to allow the fans to attend the final. Clearly it was important for us to have the waiver for Saturday, then we will wait until next week to see which regulations will come into force ».
In any case, even without fans, on Saturday it will take a Benetton determined to everything and with the utmost concentration. “Ah well, little but sure. It is a match that is practically worth the final, the one that will put us in a position to face the last one, the one against the Ospreys, in a certain ranking situation. Beyond everything, the team will only have to think about beating Connacht ».
For the match against the Irish at 6.15 pm in Monigo the Italian referee Gianluca Gnecchi was appointed, in the ninth presence. One of the assistants will be Marius Mitrea.