This article is more than 5 months old

This article is more than 5 months old

Massimo Cellino, the president of bottom-of-the-table Brescia, has said he is ready to forfeit his club’s remaining matches if the Serie A season resumes.

Brescia is the third-worst-hit province in Italy with more than 8,500 coronavirus cases and more than 1,300 deaths.

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“This season doesn’t make sense any more,” Cellino told Gazzetta dello Sport. “We’ve stopped, no team will return as before, the matches will be behind closed doors, plus there’s a risk to the health of the athletes. For me to go back to business is pure madness.

“If they force us to play, I’d be willing to not field the team and lose the matches 3-0 out of respect for the citizens of Brescia and their loved ones who are no longer there.”

Forfeited matches are usually awarded 3-0 to the other team. Cellino, formerly owner of Cagliari and Leeds, ridiculed the idea that the season could be extended to August or September.

“We need to change all the national and international rules: players’ contracts, balance sheets, deadlines with the banks, the transfer market, preparation, start of the new season. It will be absolute chaos and for what?”

He rejected the suggestion that he simply wanted to save Brescia from dropping into Serie B, an accusation levelled at him by Lazio’s president, Claudio Lotito. “I don’t care at all about relegation,” Cellino said. “So far we have deserved it and I have my blame in that, too.”