Serie A season in doubt as sides delay return to group training

Serie A clubs have decided to delay their return to group training after failing to reach an agreement  with the Italian government's coronavirus technical committee on the conditions they have demanded as a precursor to restarting the domestic league competition. While Juventus, Lazio and Inter have all expressed their determination to finish the campaign, there is a growing clamour from several clubs at the bottom of the division to draw a line under the 2019-20 season. 

Training in groups was scheduled to recommence on Monday but the stand-off with the technical committee has led to a postponement. Serie A sides are not happy about a government decree that the whole squad of a club will have to be placed in quarantine if a single player tests positive for Covid-19. 

Serie A start date far from assured

Whether the season will resume remains up in the air: the Italian Football Federation had set 13 June as the date to restart but Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte warned that the "conditions to make [the date] official are not yet in place." 

Some clubs are also not in agreement over the proposed date. Pierpaolo Marino, Udinese's technical director, expressed his reservations to national broadcaster Rai: "Playing on 13 June is a crazy idea. There was a massacre [in terms of injuries] in the Bundesliga and they started training seven weeks before they started playing."