Inter CEO, Marotta calls for a boycott of international football due to the Covid-19 crisis

During a season that has been restructured due to coronavirus, the San Siro chief is unhappy with a perceived lack of protection for players.

In the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, Inter CEO Giuseppe Marotta called for a boycott of international football, believing the “situation is creating inequality.”

A number of Series A parties have reportedly seen players banned by local health authorities from traveling to meet with their countries over the international break.

After the latest round of testing, positive coronavirus tests were recorded at Inter, Fiorentina, Sassuolo, Genoa, Roma and Lazio, with current regulations dictating that all players from the squads in question must self-isolate to contain any potential spread for the next 10 days.

Players who have been appointed to international duty will not be allowed to join their national teams until the end of their quarantine period, which is another blow to Italy’s preparations for the Estonia, Poland and Bosnia & Herzegovina fixtures.

On Friday, Italy head coach Roberto Mancini was diagnosed with Covid-19 himself, meaning he is unable to take his usual spot on the touchline for the first two games, but he could return to the clash with Bosnia for the Nations League pending a negative test early next week.

Initially, Mancini called up 41 players to his latest squad, but that number has been reduced to 25 with the virus currently making the rounds in Serie A, and Marotta believes that as the pandemic continues, more should be done to protect players at club level.

“This is an unfair situation. In the lack of centrality of this way of management, there is a grey area. Each local health authority becomes central to the management of the clubs in this way,’ Gazzetta dello Sport told the Inter chief.

I go further, if faced with a positive case and this is the overall management of the situation, then I say let the national teams boycott it.

“Yes, I’m saying it. This is where the system’s credibility is concerned. Football has to go on, it suits everybody and then we should be given a hand by the government and set certain rules.

If we need a moment to stop, I propose that all of us stop for fifteen days, set clear and equal rules for all of us, and then start again. This is bad for Italian football as a whole.

Marotta also urged the Minister of Sport of Italy to clarify a specific set of protocols for all clubs across the country, adding: “This situation creates inequality, so I urge Spadafora, the Minister of Sport, to intervene.”

This alters the regularity of different tournaments. I find it absurd that, in different regions, the ASL (local health unit) acts differently, from Rome to Milan to Florence.

“There are protocols, but the lack of any central organization also creates this grey area. Each ASL then becomes crucial to the club’s fortunes.

“This makes it even more important for me to raise the alarm, as I said a few days ago that we had to protect players from injury on international duty.”