Italy: "If Serie A resumes, we'll consider free-to-air matches" (V. Spadafora, Minister for Sport)

"If the championship (Serie A TIM) resumes, this time we will seriously consider this opportunity to broadcast the matches free-to-air to guarantee all Italians the opportunity to watch games, precisely because of the social function football has. When I tried to do this in the period of maximum emergency, I had a heated confrontation to say the least with the CEO of Sky and the president of Lega Serie A. It is a very thorny issue, when the world of football does not want to decide for economic reasons it is the government that must do it," said Vincenzo Spadafora, Italy's Minister for Sport, on 21/04/2020, while the Italian government prepares for a gradual lockdown exit from 04/05/2020.

"I have a meeting on Wednesday (22/04/2020) where the FIGC will present me the protocol, mainly for training. I will certainly not start the championship or training on 04/05/2020 if the conditions for the country do not allow it before that date. Sport isn't just football and football doesn't only correspond to Serie A. We have to make sure that football is ready to resume training, I will…