ROME - (ANSA) - Italian footballers union AIC on Friday announced a 15-minute delay to weekend play to protest a one-year doping ban handed down on two players who showed up late for a Serie B drugs test.

All matches in Serie A and B will start a quarter of an hour late in a show of solidarity with former Brescia winger Daniele Mannini, who is now at Serie A club Napoli, and Brescia striker Davide Possanzini.

The Italian Soccer Federation (FIGC) said Friday it would meet next Thursday with the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), Italian sport's ruling body.

FIGC said it was already looking at possible recourse against Thursday's ruling by world sport's top court, the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).



