Malago: ‘Serie A teams in Astori shirts’

By Football Italia staff

CONI President Giovanni Malago says all teams will wear a Davide Astori shirt as they enter the pitch when Serie A resumes, and apologises for being taken in by “fake news”.

The Fiorentina captain tragically died on Sunday, and all Serie A matches were cancelled as a result.

Yesterday rumours spread on social media that the Viola would pay Astori’s proposed new contract to his family, something Malago repeated only for it to be denied by the club.

“When we started talking about this tragedy Genoa and Cagliari, two of the most important teams in his career were about to take to the pitch,” the Lega Serie A’s extraordinary commissioner said on Italia 1.

“Then the call came from [Cagliari President Tommaso] Giulini that the team didn’t want to play, and Genoa straight away backed that idea with great sensitivity.

“The postponement of the Milan derby wasn’t easy, given all the tickets that had been sold, but I think in the end it was the right decision to honour Astori’s memory, even if we’re obviously sorry for those who had made sacrifices to go and watch their team.

“I’ve proposed that all teams take to the pitch in Davide Astori’s shirt, everyone’s on board and we’re now starting the machinery to organise that.

“The second thing is that I need to make a clarification, as it seemed there could be a posthumous renewal of Davide’s contract, but it’s fake news.

“Fiorentina will do something for the player’s family, even if it doesn’t seem to have come out in the last few hours, but they prefer to keep it private and their decision must be respected.”

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