This weekend’s Serie A clash was postponed earlier today, and AC Milan are reportedly very unhappy with the decision, and there are a few reasons why.
In the past 24 hours, Milan have been waiting for a decision about the status of their clash against Bologna, and it finally arrived on Friday evening – the game will be postponed after hours of trying to find a solution.
This, understandably, has frustrated the Rossoneri. Before this morning’s meeting, Paolo Scaroni stated that postponement was not a consideration for the club, instead preferring to play the fixture this weekend.
Of course, we know this not to be the case now, and Scaroni spoke of his disappointment after the meeting finished. However, the Diavolo are reportedly ‘strongly disappointed’ by the decision made, and a report by Calciomercato.com has delved into the reasons.
Firstly, other events are still going ahead in Bologna – such as the European Boxing Championship and the Motor Show – leaving Milan to question why their game has been called off, given other events can still occur behind closed doors.
Additionally, the decision now causes a scheduling headache, with the only clear date that the game could be played on being six months away. The Serie A president is even considering playing the match on Christmas Day, so the Rossoneri’s disappointment is beyond understandable.
Even Bologna’s Freaking PRIMAVERA MATCH is going as scheduled.
Why did the Bologna Mayor go on a power trip to mess up our schedule is beyond me.
This helps nobody except Napoli who get to face a weaker Milan with no Theo and no Reijnders.
Don’t blame anybody except the Milan players who were carded. The truth is both cards could have been avoided and it should have.
What was Tijjani’s offense? The exact incident happened with Man City and one other team in EPL, it wasn’t carded, let alone a red card. But during Arsenal game, a similar incident occurred and a red card was issued, so it’s simply the referees different views to the same incident.
These are not even the worst reasons why this decision was unfair to us. The worst part is that Theo and Tijjani will now have to serve their suspensions against Napoli, who are much stronger adversaries than Bologna.
Like I said in another thread, I’m surprised at how little weight Milan seem to have in the league as opposed to Bologna. We are Serie A giants; Bologna are nobodies. But still, they prevailed. Weird.
The only correct league stance would have been: “we understand that the city of Bologna is dealing with the after-effects of a flooding and we respect the mayor’s concerns; we won’t defy a local ordnance. But we are the authority that establishes where and when matches are to be played as long as the local authorities and clubs make the facilities available. We had the agreement of clubs, mayors. and prefects for the venues in Como and Empoli which are both viable alternatives. Then, Bologna need to follow the league’s determination and play in one of these venues once we pick which one. They do have the right to refuse to play but if they do, then they forfeit 0-3 and that’s it; period, full stop.”
Instead, the league just folded to what Bologna wanted, ignoring what Milan wanted, and we ended up being the damaged part (due to the suspension situation).
Being “disappointed” doesn’t help. What we need to figure out, is why the league privileged the demands of a small club over ours. OK, let’s not be arrogant and let’s not talk about big clubs and small clubs. But at least, why the league privileged the demands of one of its member clubs, while completely ignoring the demands of another member club. That’s not right. The solution had to be one that BOTH clubs were comfortable with. If Bologna were allowed to veto the solution of Como or Empoli, then Milan should have been allowed to veto the postponement, thus enforcing the forfeit rules.
Mayor! Mayor! Mayor!
Mayor MY A$$!!
By the way, if the final argument was that it would be too late for the logistics to change the match to another venue, just change the match date to Sunday or Monday.
From Bologna or Milano to Como or Empoli, we’re not talking about going halfway around the globe. It’s a few hours in a bus for one or both of the teams. What exactly are the logistics nightmare that couldn’t be worked out? If the league still wanted the game to go ahead in Bologna at the scheduled time in a meeting scheduled for 28 hours before that previous kickoff time, which would have made Milan hop on a bus and travel a few hours after the decision was made to play in Bologna anyway like the league initially wanted, then, if after the discussions there was little time left, why not just bump the game to another 24 hours later and have it on Sunday (in Como or Empoli), which would be 42 hours later (28+24)? So 28 hours is OK but 42 is not?
Another issue: it seems like the mayor of Bologna pulled off an emotional plea, saying that having the game with closed doors would damage the income generated by the game, which he promised, part of it when the game does happen, will be given to the families victimized by the flood. Hey Mr Mayor, run a freaking fund-raiser, then! Don’t damage Milan because of your inability to otherwise generate funds for the families. Or else, dedicate part of what the city makes in the next few Bologna games when renting the municipal stadium to Bologna, to the families. This money doesn’t necessary need to come out of Milan-Bologna; it can come out of any other game!
Anyway, this whole situation was really unfair to Milan. Despicable!
The mayor is obviously a Napoli fan
Bologna have mentally forfeited the match and the league is doing them a huge favour. I will laugh my fcking a ss off if they lose six months from now. Cowards.