SERIE A are reportedly considering a bizarre “play-off” system to decide the Scudetto winners after the coronavirus outbreak threw their season into chaos.
The death toll from the deadly bug has risen in Italy from 168 to 631 this week with at least 10,149 confirmed cases of Covid-19.
Italian football president Gabriele Gravina has three solutions to determine the eventual winners and losers of the 2019/20 campaignCredit: Getty Images
⚠️ Read our Coronavirus in Sport live blog for the latest news, updates and cancellations
And all sporting events in the nation were cancelled until April 3 at the earliest in an announcement made on Monday – causing turmoil in Serie A.
Juventus are currently in top spot, a point clear of Lazio, with Inter Milan and Atalanta making up the rest of the top four.
And down at the bottom, Genoa, Lecce, SPAL, and Brescia are battling it out to avoid the drop with the lowest three relegated.
Now there are fears that football chiefs will not properly be able to conclude the season due to the coronavirus.
But Football Italia claim Italian football president Gabriele Gravina has three solutions to determine the eventual winners and losers of the 2019/20 campaign.
They state one is to call the season now, which would result in Cristiano Ronaldo and his team-mates at Juventus retaining the title.
Another is a play-off system to determine the Scudetto winners, European qualifiers and the relegation places.
And they say a third is to not award a champion at all and cancelling the season.
They quote Gravina as saying: “We hope that the season can be concluded as planned, because if we do resume on April 3, there are certain windows to make up for these postponed games.
“I took it upon myself to launch the idea of play-offs and play-outs, helping to respect the values of sporting competition.
“It would involve the four top teams in the play-off for the Scudetto and the last four in the play-outs to decide relegation.
“The FIGC will then indicate to UEFA who will participate in the European competitions next season.”
Juventus and Atalanta are also both still involved in the Champions League, while Inter Milan and Roma have Europa League ties tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Arsenal stars are in coronavirus quarantine and the club’s Premier League clash with Manchester City is off tonight after they met a virus victim.
It comes after Nottingham Forest and Olympiacos owner Evangelos Marinakis tested positive for the virus after visiting the Emirates.
Chelsea’s visit in the Champions League to Bayern Munich next week will be played behind-closed-doors as will Manchester United’s Europa trip to LASK in Austria.
And matches in Spain’s La Liga will also be played in empty stadiums until early April.
Uefa ‘considering postponing Euro 2020 for a YEAR over coronavirus after plea by several federations’
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
