The president of the Italian Professional Footballers’ Association, Damiano Tommasi, has backed Nocerina’s player following the club’s expulsion from the League.
The Lega Pro side’s controversial derby match with Salernitana in November ended after just 21 minutes when the side from Campania used up all three of their substitutions in the first half before five more players suffered ‘injuries’, leading to the match being abandoned.
Nocerina fans had been banned from attending the game after causing trouble in other fixtures and it is alleged that some of the Nocerina players received death threats from the ultras should they have played the game.
However Tommasi, the former Roma and Italy midfielder, has insisted that there needs to be clarification over what exactly happened before blaming the players involved.
“We’ll need to wait for the court rulings but the initial verdict was harsh,” he told reporters.
“What is certain is that the players’ actions were the final result of a chain of events but we need to find out whether they were the protagonists or the victims.”
Nocerina have provisionally been kicked out of the Lega Pro B, the third tier of Italian football, as a result of the players’ actions and fined €10,000.
Follow Richard Hinman on Twitter: @RichardHinman
