Chaos reigned one of the top matches in the Italian football league this season when Napoli failed to attend their match against Juventus, after a request from local health authorities to keep their players at home due to COVID-19 cases.
With the League’s refusal to cancel the match, Juventus arrived at the "Allianz" stadium in Turin on the team bus an hour before kick-off, while Italian media reported that there was no sign of Napoli.
According to the league rules, Juventus will be a 3-0 winner of the match.
A Napoli spokesman confirmed to Reuters that the team is under isolation at the request of local authorities after two players were infected with Covid-19 in the last 4 days.
He said the club would fight any decision to lose the match.
An official from the Napoli health authorities confirmed in a TV interview that the Napoli players had been ordered to stay at home.
"We did not explicitly say that they could not play the match, but it is clear that this is the result," he said.
Earlier, the Association said that the health authorities in Naples did not take into account the health protocol agreed upon between the ministries of health and sports in the country and the football authorities.
The protocol states that in the event that any of the players are injured, the rest of the team can train and play again, provided they undergo the test until the results of the tests turn negative.
A statement of the association added that many matches have already been played this season after one or more players were injured in the club ranks.
The statement continued, "The protocol stipulates specific rules that cannot be departed from, allowing league matches to be played even in the event of a positive result, with the participation of players whose result was negative."
Juventus, who announced on Saturday that they would play the match, indicated that they were ready to meet.
The club wrote "Match Day" in a comment on its Twitter account, accompanied by a picture of the striker Cristiano Ronaldo and the timing and stadium of the match.
Last Sunday, Napoli hosted the Genoa team, which injured 17 players in its ranks last week, while their match at home to Turin was postponed on Saturday.
The League approved the continuation of the matches, provided that each team includes at least 13 players, and any team that cannot play the match will be considered a loser.
However, clubs have the right to request that a match be postponed once a season without considering it as losing, if 10 players are injured within one week.