When play resumes this weekend in Italy’s Serie A, half of the matches will be played in closed stadiums.
Giant AC Milan will host Livorno on Sunday (TV: GolTV, delay, 7:30 pm ET) with no one in the 80,000-seat San Siro stadium. Four other Serie A teams will play their home match behind closed doors, including Chievo Verona, which will host runaway leader Inter Milan Sunday (TV: GolTV, live, 9 m ET), and Fiorentina, whose Franchi Stadium was the site of two U.S. games at the 1990 World Cup.
There was talk of club presidents ordering a strike to protest what they believe are the Italian government’s harsh reaction to the death of policeman Filippo Raciti in rioting at last Friday’s Catania-Palermo Sicilian derby, but Lega Calcio, Italian pro soccer’s governing body, ordered play to resume.
“Game on,” said Adriano Galliani, vice president of AC Milan and former head of Lega Calcio. “It was a great test of maturity on the part of the presidents. There’s still a great deal of bitterness because we were not consulted by the government.”
Only six stadiums meet new security standards and will be open to the public.