The director of the ASL health association in Piedmont insists he ‘never thought of intervening’ in Juventus and Torino’s games after Napoli were banned from travelling due to COVID-19.
The squad did not travel to Turin for the match on Sunday evening as they had two COVID cases within the squad and the rest of the team was asked to self-isolate.
Juve and the Lega Serie A assure the protocol for sporting events should’ve allowed Napoli to play regardless, which is why the result is still sub judice – pending an investigation.
The director of the ASL health association in Piedmont insists he ‘never thought of intervening’ in Juventus and Torino’s games after Napoli were banned from travelling due to COVID-19.
The squad did not travel to Turin for the match on Sunday evening as they had two COVID cases within the squad and the rest of the team was asked to self-isolate.
Juve and the Lega Serie A assure the protocol for sporting events should’ve allowed Napoli to play regardless, which is why the result is still sub judice – pending an investigation.
“Juventus and Torino apply the FIGC and Ministry for Health COVID protocol to the letter, so we never even thought of intervening the same way the Naples ASL did,” said Doctor Roberto Testi, the chief of the ASL Turin, in the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
“When a player is positive, the club chief medic immediately alerts everyone. The team, like any business, takes care of the athlete, while we follow the extra-football elements who have been potentially exposed: wives, children, baby-sitters.
“As for the players, all we do there is perform the final test to confirm he has recovered.”
Juventus implied that Napoli contacted the ASL to ask for the travel ban, which was not enacted for any other club that had positive cases.
“I can only imagine that the ASL in Naples took that decision because it thought Napoli had not applied the COVID protocol properly,” added Testi.
“If we were to find ourselves dealing with 20 players who tested positive in a squad, we’d start to raise some questions too, but that has not happened because the protocol was respected.”