Marotta: 'Almost provocative'

By Football Italia staff

Beppe Moratta has explained why Inter reacted to the decision made by Serie A and claims that there are "three reasons" to not play Juventus on Monday.

“Playing Juve-Inter tonight was impracticable, almost provocative hypothesis,” he told La Repubblica. “They aired it informally on Friday evening, but we didn’t want to take it into consideration for at least three reasons.

“First of all, we would have gone against the logic of protecting the public health. I don’t think that the coronavirus alarm would have stopped within 24 hours.

“Secondly, because the Stadium would’ve only been open to Juventus fans and this would have created further controversy.

“Thirdly, because we would have to postpone Juve-Milan of the Coppa Italia to Thursday, overlapping it with Napoli-Inter. At that point, we would have had the grievances of Rai, who are paying money for the TV rights.”

He said that Inter wouldn’t want to play the match on Wednesday or Thursday and to reschedule the Coppa Italia in May, but not in spite.

“We have not officially received any proposals in this sense,” he added. “I would have returned it to the sender. To protect uniformity.

“A very strong decision has been made and it was very clear. On Thursday: the game will be played behind closed doors.

“Everyone had adapted, out of a sense of responsibility. Saturday’s change blew everything up, creating a calendar problem that has a very difficult solution. Closed doors were the only tools that could have guaranteed the regularity of the League.

“I don’t see it any other way. At this point, however, it looks like this tool can’t be used anymore. It has been delegitimised by the decision the League took without consulting us, without meeting any advisors and assembly, without giving precise reasons and creating a situation of unease, imbalance, disparity between the clubs concerned.”

About the solutions the Inter director has revealed that they will meet and discuss with the League but revealed how the situation has become very complicated after last weekend.

“We will talk about it on Wednesday at the meeting, but the championship is at risk of a collapse,” he said. “It will be important to gather and discuss it in the open. The matches remain conditioned by the provision the government has taken on Lombardy, Emilia Romagna and Veneto, but it would be an incongruity not to validate closed doors a week and then to validate it the following one.

“It would be correct to keep the temporal scan of the days, therefore the games postponed last week should take precedence. Playing Juventus-Inter next Monday, even if we face Getafe in the Europa League on Thursday? We will discuss it the day after tomorrow.”

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