Travel bans of some local health authorities in Italy have created controversies all over Europe: here’s a recap of what happened so far.
Players of Fiorentina, Genoa, Roma, Sassuolo and Inter have been banned from travelling by local ASLs after cases of Covid emerged in their teams last week.
For this reason, only a few Italy players could go to Coverciano to begin the training sessions with the Azzurri.
Other players will arrive tomorrow while a third group is still self-isolating and has not been allowed to join Italy national team yet.
Probably, they are going to be given the all-clear after 10 days of self-isolation.
Sassuolo's Gian Marco Ferrari, Domenico Berardi and Manuel Locatelli will arrive in Florence tomorrow after the end of their isolation period that begun nine days ago.
Inter’s Alessandro Bastoni has been allowed to join the Azzurri by the local ASL. According to Sky Sport, he has COVID antibodies having recovered from the virus last month.
The same applies to Genoa’s Luca Pellegrini and Domenico Criscito although the latter had to be withdrawn from the team because of an injury.
While Bastoni trained with the Azzurri on Monday, his Inter teammates Nicolò Barella and Danilo D’Ambrosio are still self-isolating at home.
Other international players of Inter, including Romelu Lukaku, have left Milan with a private jet, in agreement with the local ASL, according to reports in Italy.
As per Sky Sport, Roma’s ASL has given green light to Lazio’s foreign players to leave the country and join their national teams while Francesco Acerbi has yet not joined Italy but this is reported to be a decision taken by the FIGC.
Fiorentina’s international players such as Nikola Milenkovic and Dusan Vlahovic have not been allowed to leave Florence.
"We’ve had many problems with Italian clubs and I still don’t know if have no certainty that Milenkovic and Vlahovic will be able to join us. We are in contact with Fiorentina and with the local authorities, we hope that they will be able to arrive today or tomorrow,” said Bosnia coach Ljubisa Tumbakovic.
“I’m worried about the lack of coordination from some local health authorities, because the lack of available players at an international level entails sanctions,” said FIGC President Gabriele Gravina today.
“We have worked with the relevant ministers. From this point of view, Italy is not making a good international impression.
“I say this with bitterness and regret. We are the only Federation in Europe that has problems of this type.”
Inter’s CEO Beppe Marotta also made his voice heard: “This situation is creating inequality, so I demand the Minister for Sport Spadafora intervenes,” he said.
“It alters the regularity of various tournaments. I find it absurd that the ASL in different regions act differently, from Rome to Milan to Florence.
“There are protocols, but there is also this grey area created by the lack of any central organisation. Every ASL then becomes crucial to the fortunes of the club.
“This makes my raising the alarm even more important, as I said a few days ago we had to protect players from injury on international duty.”
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