ROME: Nearly seven weeks after the last game was played, Italy’s top football division finally has a target date to resume practice.

Premier Giuseppe Conte announced on Sunday that professional sports teams can resume training on May 18, while individual sports can resume practice on May 4.

The move means that the Serie A league could resume playing games in June albeit without any fans in the stadiums.

Conte said that starting on Monday, “Sports Minister Vincenzo Spadafora will work intensely with the football system, the professional sports in general, to find a road map that we have already partly defined in terms of the resumption of individual training on May 4 and teams on May 18.”

Italy was the first European country to be hit hard by the coronavirus and Serie A has been suspended since March 9. The suspension followed a chaotic fortnight in which the country attempted to carry on with matches behind closed doors.

“Then we will try to see if they can continue with the championships that are suspended,” he added. “We will only reach this conclusion if it can be guaranteed that it is safe. We don’t want our athletes to get sick.

“I’m passionate for football. Like many Italians, I initially found it strange that the championship could be interrupted or suspended but I think that even the most ardent fan understands that there wasn’t an alternative.”

Twelve rounds remain in Serie A, plus four other games that were postponed from the 25th round. Also, the Coppa Italia was suspended after the first leg of the semi-finals.

Eight-time defending champions Juventus lead Lazio by one point in the Serie A standings.

At least 15 Serie A players have tested positive for Covid-19. Most of the infected players have recovered, although Atalanta’s reserve goalkeeper Marco Sportiello was still positive as of Wednesday, according to the ANSA news agency.

Sports medicine officials have clashed over a proposed health protocol for footballers specifically over the issue where if a player or team official tests positive for the virus, how long if at all their team-mates should be quarantined.

The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) has already drawn up a medical protocol for training.

For the start of training, each club will form a group of players, technical staff, doctors and physiotherapists who will be tested and then isolated in a summer-style training camp.

There are also plans to donate five COVID test-kits for each kit used by clubs to avoid the criticism that football is taking away much-needed resources from other areas.

“There needs to be a gradual return and it requires a rigid protocol,” Spadafora said. The FIGC presented a protocol and the technical-scientific commission said it wasn’t sufficient yet. It needs more analysis and only after that analysis can we say if the season will resume or not.”

Before Conte’s nationally televised speech and news conference, health ministry figures indicated that Italy had seen its lowest day-to-day increase in deaths 260 since mid-March, during the first week of lockdown.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2020