The indecision that accompanied the League and the teams concerned in these last two days had its outcome with the resolution of the Board of Directors urgently convened yesterday evening. Several possibilities were explored during the meeting. From moving the race to Friday next week to possibly postponing the start of the playoffs. The reason for the request presented by Milan was the discovery between Tuesday and Thursday of five positives for Covid. The company of president Lucio Fusaro has submitted to the Regulations of the Serie A Health Protocol (approved with resolution of the Board of Directors on 22 September 2022) and valid for the entire Regular Season, promptly reporting any positive results to the Lega Medical Commission (obviously without disclosing the names to protect privacy).
The text of the legislation reads as follows:
[…] Upon discovery of a fourth positive athlete, the races will be postponed. From the day following the reporting date certifying the positivity of the fourth athlete, the seven-day count will start within which the meetings scheduled in the calendar will be suspended. In the event that the number of positives falls below four over the seven days, the competitive activity (training and matches) of the Team will resume early. [..].
In the case of Milan, starting from the beginning of this week some team members began to experience symptoms related to Covid and the medical staff carried out tests which revealed their positivity.
«On Tuesday one player, Wednesday two players and Thursday another two, it goes without saying that the situation had become really complicated for us.- explains patron Fusaro, the President of Allianz Powervolley Milano – At this point we made a request, as per the regulation , to move the game, while realizing the difficulties that we would have created for ourselves and for others. Obviously the request was not only lawful but necessary to safeguard everyone’s integrity. We have done nothing but implement a protocol by following the rules. At this point, the Volleyball League urgently convened the Board of Directors (of which I am a member), in search of a solution. Having evaluated all the proposals (from playing the match next Friday to postponing the start of the playoffs by a week), the Board of Directors, not unanimously and with the abstention of Fusaro and Massacesi, decided to have the match played regularly on the scheduled date and time. Reluctantly but with the same spirit of sportsmanship that distinguishes us, without even taking into account our interests which we could very well have asserted given the still existing validity of the rules and in the face of the precedents that occurred during the course of this season, we accepted the decision taken by the majority”.
A decision that will in fact translate into a sacrifice for Milan which will land in the decimated Marche region and a show not worthy of the wonderful Marche public.
Finally, albeit with regret, President Fusaro also found himself defending his team from some allegations that have arisen in the last 24 hours: «We are sorry and embittered that someone might have thought that we wanted to postpone the match due to the Yuki’s injury (dating back to the Final Four in Rome, ed), since, I repeat, we have always moved according to the rules. Of course, also considering my age and my professional and sporting career, I certainly don’t pay attention to some statements addressed to the reasons for the request for postponement for other purposes; my certainty is that we are aware of our sporting and moral value. We were unlucky, true, but like other clubs have been, this is sport and we still want to pass a positive message, hoping that this choice doesn’t affect our season finale and that of other directly or indirectly connected teams at this race.”
