Could Juventus-Inter be called off?

By Football Italia staff

With just hours to go, the idea of postponing Juventus-Inter is still being discussed by the Government and football authorities rather than play behind closed doors due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

It is due to kick off on Sunday at 19.45 GMT, with no supporters or extra media in the stands.

Incredibly, the situation is still up in the air, because there is another crisis meeting this morning to discuss the options.

While there are five Serie A matches to be played behind closed doors this weekend, Juventus-Inter is one of the biggest fixtures in the season.

Having to play behind closed doors would mean losing huge amounts of ticket revenue – although Juve are not obliged to and seemingly have no real intention of refunding those tickets – and TV rights.

It would also damage the image of Serie A to have the Derby d’Italia played to absolute silence.

A postponement would be catastrophic in other ways, as Inter-Sampdoria already needs to be rescheduled after it was called off last weekend.

The fixture list is so packed with the Coppa Italia semi-finals, Europa League and Champions League, not to mention Euro 2020 in the summer, that finding another time to play these games would be extremely difficult.

Udinese-Fiorentina is due to be played behind closed doors today at 17.00 GMT, although there too is some uncertainty, because the Governor of the Friuli region Massimiliano Fedriga has asked for it to be postponed.

Also behind closed doors on Sunday are Milan-Genoa, Parma-SPAL and Sassuolo-Brescia.

The treatment of the outbreak has caused confusion, because while Juventus fans are barred from attending a game in Turin, they were allowed to travel to Lyon for a Champions League match on Wednesday.

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