Today, the president of Serie A, Lorenzo Casini, has once again spoken about the weekend’s Bologna vs AC Milan clash, whilst also discussing the possibilities of 3 PM derbies.
For Milan, there can be positive and negative discussions about the past weekend. From a negative perspective, the Rossoneri were unable to play, with the situation in Bologna being frustrating, to say the least.
However, positives can be taken from the Derby D’Italia, which saw Juventus and Inter play out a 4-4 draw, meaning neither side gained on the league leaders Napoli – who travel to San Siro tomorrow night – and neither moved created a gap from the Diavolo.
Interestingly, the Derby was held at an earlier time of 6 PM CEST, rather than taking the late spot on Sunday night, and this has opened up a conversation about other games in the division. Today, Casini spoke to Radio Anch’lo about the situation, and the Bologna debacle, and his words have been relayed by Calciomercato.com.
“At the moment Bologna-Milan is scheduled to be played in February. With respect to the postponement, there was an order from the public authorities that cannot be disregarded. We tried to dialogue with the institutions to be able to play behind closed doors but there was no possibility. We therefore worked on the idea of a neutral pitch, which is not provided for in our regulations.
“It would have been an important novelty, but the available stadiums had a much smaller capacity than Bologna’s stadium. We try to improve every time. One thing that has been discussed is the provision of an emergency neutral pitch, which was not envisaged. There are aspects that have to be considered.”
3 PM derbies…
“It [having the Derby D’Italia earlier] was arrived at according to a very simple logic: more matches and more revenue. If from many quarters, including coaches and players, it is said that we play too much, we need to arrive at playing less, perhaps with a different distribution of calendars, perhaps with more simultaneous matches.
“Inter-Juve at 6pm? The time zone issue had an impact. We needed to improve the international usability of some matches. A Milan derby at 3pm could be a possibility, but the fit in these cases goes beyond tetris. There is a madness between the different requirements that emerge.”