Coronavirus: This season is meaningless – Di Livio against Serie A restart

The concept of Serie A resuming with games behind closed doors has been met with fierce criticism from Angelo Di Livio.

Published : May 28, 2020 20:38 IST

Juventus celebrates in a behind-closed-doors game.
Juventus celebrates in a behind-closed-doors game.
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Juventus celebrates in a behind-closed-doors game.

Angelo Di Livio has railed against the idea of the 2019-20 Serie A season resuming, suggesting the campaign has become "meaningless" because of the ongoing fight against coronavirus.

Italy was one of the first European countries to feel the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and Serie A was halted in March as regions, particularly those in the north, struggled to stop the virus' spread amid rising death tolls.

While top flights in France and the Netherlands have been declared completed, leagues in Italy, Spain and England are intending to follow the Bundesliga's lead in Germany and resume with fixtures behind closed doors.

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Clubs in Italy returned to training this month and it is thought the league will soon get the green light from the government to resume fixtures in mid-June. However, former Italy international Di Livio, who won three Serie A titles with Juventus in the 1990s, is vehemently against the concept of restarting the league.

'Too many casualties'

"I am against [the restart]," he told Stats Perform News .

"I am sorry. This season is meaningless. The situation is rife with too many casualties. What is the point? Who will have the guts to celebrate a title win after all this? Let's face it, guys. They want [football] to keep going behind closed doors? I know exactly what makes football go round and these situations, but I don't agree.

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"I may be wrong, but I look at other things and I say this as a man who lives on and about football only. The situation has been ugly and critical and still in Lombardy nothing is clear yet, is it?"

There have been 231,139 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Italy, where 33,072 people have died with the virus.

Prior to the league being halted, Juventus was one point ahead of Lazio as it bids for a ninth Scudetto in a row.

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