Every now and then the ‘beautiful game’ has a moment that leaves knowledgeable and long standing football fans wondering if they have just had a fever dream, and it was the Italian Serie A who provided the latest example and it concerned the re-arranged clash between Fiorentina and Inter Milan.
As fans will remember, the original game was unfortunately postponed back in early December after Edoardo Bove suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch, and whilst the 22 year old midfielder was thankfully fine following treatment and a stay in hospital, the game was never restarted after the 17th minute pause.
Having been rearranged for early February, the decision was taken to restart the game from the 17th minute, but that meant it had to have a unique set of novel, and rather illogical, one off rules and even for fans who have been following this bizarre story, it takes a bit to get your head around.
The specifics meant that Fiorentina could ultimately only select 14 players, and that is not the oddest thing about the conditions that were imposed to finish the game at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.
The rules prohibited the use of players who were not registered to either club at the time when the original fixture took place, with an additional caveat that any banned player, or player who had been substituted before the postponement also could not feature.
However, players currently on the sidelines for disciplinary reasons were given a one off pardon for this single and specific match. Obviously wheeling and dealing in the January transfer window comes into play here as whilst new arrivals were rightly ruled out, fresh departures were also ruled out without a one off pardon to take part, so from a fair play and integrity stand point there was no way this game could ever be presented as a continuation, but that is how it was operated.
This obviously meant that Inter’s Denzel Dumfries and Fiorentina’s Pietro Comuzzo (both serving one match bans) were eligible to play and were named in the respective starting XI’s, but all six of La viola’s new signings (Michael Folorunsho, Pablo Mari, Ched Ndour, Nicola Fagioli and Nicolo Zaniolo) were all out, as were January departures Lucas Martinez Quarta, Cristiano Biraghi, Christian Kouame and Jonathan Ikone) leaving them with only 14 available players.
By contrast, l Nerazzurri, only lost one player to the rules, Nicola Zalewki.
Questions will continue to be asked about sporting integrity but Bove was in attendance for the clash and everyone will have welcomed that, however having undergone surgery to fit an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, he is no longer permitted to play in Serie A so he will be ultimately moving on at some point as well.
