Tommasi: ‘Armbands must be authorised’

By Football Italia staff

The head of the Italian players’ union, Damiano Tommasi, says they’ll meet with the Lega Serie A “soon” about the captain’s armbands issue.

This year the league has introduced standardised armbands, white with the Serie A logo and ‘Capitano’ in large letters.

Roma’s Daniele De Rossi and Papu Gomez of Atalanta were among the players to ignore the ruling, but this week the governing body warned there would be disciplinary sanctions for players wearing the wrong armbands.

That was particularly controversial from a Fiorentina point of view, as their armband has been designed in tribute to late captain Davide Astori, who died in his sleep earlier this year.

“The rule doesn’t say that you have to wear that armband,” Tommasi clarified on Lady Radio.

“It says that any armband must be authorised by the Lega. So there’s already a distortion. I don’t know at this point if Fiorentina have already asked the Lega to use the Astori armband.

“In that case it’s up to the Lega to approve it.

“It’s a rule that was introduced so quickly that I don’t think they’ve even decided who would authorise armbands other than the Lega’s one. Is it the president, the director, the council or the assembly?

“There was already a provision which forbade the use of unauthorised symbols.

“So other armbands simply have to be authorised, but we still don’t know if the Lega will only authorise their own armbands.”

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