The Proposed Serie A Match That Was Set To Take Place Outside Italy Has Been Cancelled

In what will definitely be a good news for most football players stakeholders in the Italian Serie A, especially the players themselves, the proposed match that was supposed to take place out Italy has now been cancelled, much to the delight of the players and fans.

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Lega Serie A President Ezio Simonelli recently revealed that the AC Milan vs. Como in Australia was dropped after ‘unacceptable new demands,’ while the Supercoppa Italiana might abandon the Final Four format which is already in it fourth year in this new system.

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He made these revelations while speaking to Sport Mediaset ahead of today’s Supercoppa final at the Al-Awwal Park stadium in Riyadh. Although this was the Final Four format, with the runners-up of the Serie A title and Coppa Italia also participating in semi-finals, it is the traditional pairing of trophy holders who face off in the Final this year.

while Napoli defeated AC Milan 2-1 in the first semi-final, Bologna had to rely on penalties against Inter as they managed to get back in the game after conceding an early goal. Hence, the two teams that would have faced off against each other will now play the EA Sports FC Supercup Final.

“The synergy with Saudi Arabia has gone well so far, we’ve been playing the Supercoppa here for four years with very positive results. Next year it will not be here, as agreed in the contract, we don’t yet know where. Seeing as the contract also doesn’t require several games, we will probably return to having a one-off Final.”

“After all, that is what we are seeing confirmed in this edition, which will be decided between the holders of the league and Coppa Italia.” He continued but that was not what the locals were hoping for, as the absence of Inter and AC Milan mean the Final has significantly fewer spectators than either of the two semi-finals.

There are huge sheets of tarpaulin with the Supercoppa logo trying to cover up the vast swathes of empty seats in the stands before kick-off and inevitably, the conversation drifted to the sudden abandonment of the planned Serie A fixture between AC Milan and Como in Perth.

The plan had seemed to find a breakthrough only to collapse over the last few hours. “We had accepted some conditions on Thursday that were difficult for us to swallow, that we did not like, just so that we could play a Serie A match abroad for the first time in history,” Simonelli explained.

“After this great effort where he agreed to not use our own referees, we received further demands this morning that were considered unacceptable. So we decided not to continue any further. Basically, they asked us for some financial guarantees, and we said no.” He further added.

Considering it was being moved in February because San Siro was out of action for the opening ceremony of the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympic Games, where will Milan-Como be played now? “It depends on the dates and venues of any Champions League play-offs.”

“It will be played at San Siro when the stadium is free, but we’ve got to wait until after January 31 to pick a guaranteed date.” He concluded. In a related development, the Italy national team are stuck in their lowest world ranking in over five years after their 4-1 defeat by Norway in November.

This has now been confirmed after the latest update to the FIFA tables and their 4-1 defeat against Norway in their final World Cup qualifier on November 16 is said to be the main reason as it was their most recent match to date and they will not be in action again until next year.

The Azzurri won six of their World Cup qualifiers, but lost twice against Norway in their first and final games and those results condemned the Nazionale to a second-place finish in their World Cup qualifying group, which meant that they missed out on direct qualification to the final tournament in 2026.

Instead, they will have to go through the play-off process for the third time in a row, missing out on the last two. After the most recent version to the FIFA world rankings, which was updated on Monday, Italy remain in 12th place, which is their lowest ranking since 2020.

As things stand, the Azzurri are ranked behind Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Croatia and Morocco in that order. Curiously, Norway, who comprehensively beat Italy twice during the World Cup play-offs in recent months, are ranked in 29th place.

Read Also: UCL: Antonio Conte Is Delighted With His Players’ Performance And Output On A Special Day For Napoli

Italy’s next opportunity to improve on their world ranking will come against Northern Ireland in the World Cup play-off semi-final in Bergamo on March 26 and then they will face either one of Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina in the final playoff if they get the better of the first opponent.

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