ROME. Not a day goes by without a new alarm or announcement of other positivity among the players, but Italian football, as well as basketball and other team sports, may have found a fixed point in the storm of the pandemic that threatened to stop it again. It is the new anti-covid protocol approved in the State-Regions Conference, and expected on Friday to be examined by the CTS, which dictates clearer rules on the management of infections, both for the teams and for the ASL: the main one is the percentage of 35 % of athletes positive to be able to trigger the block of a whole team. “So the local health authorities will have a uniform procedure”, Vezzali’s comment, while the FIGC president, Gravina, applauds while waiting for “the CTS’s ok” and Petrucci expresses the satisfaction of basketball.
The focal point, and most debated, was precisely that of the percentage of positives beyond which to trigger the block of the entire team group and between the opposite needs a compromise was found that sets this limit to 35% of the athletes group members, who in the pink of a football team is equivalent to about 11 infected. In the clubs of A the number of infected is still high, even if there are cases of negativization. Fiorentina announced another positive, without naming names for privacy, and so did Roma, which speaks of a lack of symptoms but not of completed vaccination: it is therefore not excluded that it may be the no vax that had been talked about in recent days , and in the event that once the positivity is exceeded, the Green Pass obstacle would fall.
The no vax issue, albeit minimal in percentage, remains an open chapter in football and other team sports. As for the general rules, the world of football was aiming for a higher percentage, up to 50%, but the mediation, carried out for days by the undersecretary for sport together with the ministers Roberto Speranza and Mariastella Gelmini, the president of Coni, Giovanni Malagò, and the representatives of the federations, has allowed the technicians to draw up a document in the last few hours that seems to be able to support even the stern gaze of the CTS. The protocol clearly indicates the isolation obligations for positives and the rules for managing ‘high risk’ and ‘low risk’ contacts, all to encourage participation in training and matches as much as possible, in great safety. “It is a document that provides for a uniform procedure for all ASLs and therefore guarantees the correct and regular conduct of the championships”, underlined Vezzali after the go-ahead for the agreement by the State-Regions Conference, expressing his satisfaction for a “Important result achieved by listening to the needs of the world of sport”. “Football needs dialogue, clear rules and responsibility and the new protocol is born on these bases – the words of the president of the FIGC, Gabriele Gravina -. I hope that the CTS will also recognize the commitment and daily efforts of our movement for the protection of health ”. “At this point we can say that the major obstacles have been overcome – said the president of the Fip, Gianni Petrucci -. Faced with this work, I would not be able to understand a non-sharing on the part of the CTS “.
The climate had overheated due to the many missed matches, or played by teams with many Primavera players, due to the appeals and recriminations. The decision of Serie A to reduce access to stadiums for the next two days, limiting it to 5,000 spectators, was a sign of responsibility, also picked up today by Serie B – which immediately stopped with the multiplication of infections – which decided to do the same for the two rounds that mark the restart, the first next Saturday. The letter from the Serie A League to the clubs with an invitation to third doses was also welcomed by CTS and technicians working for the protocols, even in the face of very low percentages of dodgers. Tomorrow the presidents will meet in a new assembly, and the document will be examined for an upcoming update of the championship protocol. «Stopping Serie A is not something to be underestimated. We must preserve it with the right attention and a new protocol that will end the championship with peace of mind », Umberto Calcagno, president of the Assocalciatori said in the morning. The answer to his wish seems ready.