A soccer match in one of Europe\u2019s biggest tournaments is to be played behind closed doors on Thursday as the authorities in Italy continue to restrict public gatherings amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus in the northern region of Lombardy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The decision to play the game \u2014 the second leg of a Europa League knockout match between Internazionale of Milan and Ludogorets of Bulgaria \u2014 without spectators comes after the Italian authorities postponed four league games last weekend and as the health crisis has started to affect the European sports calendar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Inter Milan, a top contender for the Italian league title this season, said its decision was the result of several days of talks with health officials in Lombardy and European soccer\u2019s governing body, UEFA, over how to stage the game, which could not be canceled because of the lack of alternate dates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The decision to go ahead with the match at Milan\u2019s cavernous San Siro stadium was confirmed on Tuesday. Inter was one of the four Italian clubs that postponed a match last weekend; makeup dates for those games have not been announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Italy now has more than 200 confirmed coronavirus cases, and while Milan, the country\u2019s economic engine, is not locked down, it is surrounded by several of the towns badly affected by the outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Inter, which is owned by a Chinese company, had already been taking steps to minimize the risks to its staff members from the virus. Nonessential employees were told over the weekend to stay away from the team\u2019s headquarters.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think it was a good idea to make the game a closed-door game. Italy has now recently discovered multiple cases of the coronavirus. If the players were to get the coronavirus, that would be extremely bad for the Chinese company that owns Inter Milan. Also, Inter Milan has fans from multiple countries in Europe, if the virus were to be existing in the San Siro Stadium, people from all over Europe would end up getting infected with the coronavirus. Inter Milan is also competing in the Italian league Serie A. If their players were to get infected, Inter would most likely no longer be able to compete in the Serie A which would be very bad for the team, fans, and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A soccer match in one of Europe\u2019s biggest tournaments is to be played behind closed doors on Thursday as the authorities in Italy continue to restrict public gatherings amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus in the northern region of Lombardy. The decision to play the game \u2014 the second leg of a Europa League knockout match between Internazionale… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3914,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3910\/revisions\/3914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}