Italy’s minister for sport Vincenzo Spadafora has thrown cold water on suggestions that Serie A could return on May 3.
Italian football had been initially suspended until April 3, but there had been growing speculation that the season would return in early May instead.
In an interview with La Repubblica, though, Spadafora dismissed those reports and announced that it would be an even longer wait before football makes its return.
“May 3 is unrealistic,” the minister said.
“I’ll propose the idea of extending the suspension of sport at all levels throughout the month of April, and I’ll extend that to training sessions.”
Spadafora also hit out at the bigger clubs’ handling of the current crisis, and pledged to assign an amount of money to grassroots sports in the country.
“I’ll assign an extraordinary 400 million euros for grassroots and amateur sports.
“Bigger clubs live in a bubble, beyond their means and that starts with the million euro wages they pay their players.
“They have to understand that nothing will be as it was before when this crisis is over.”
