OFFICIAL: Fiorentina vs Udinese rescheduled

Good news, everyone. 84 days after Serie A postponed Fiorentina’s match against Udinese, the league office has scheduled a date for the replay (except we still don’t have a time for kickoff, which is just typical). Clear your calendar on Wednesday, 27 April 2022, because that’s when the Viola will welcome Friuli’s finest to the Artemio Franchi, assuming there aren’t any further shenanigans.

While rescheduling this one was always going to be tough, waiting this long has left the Viola in a tough spot. Three days before this one, they travel all the way south to Salernitana. Four days after that, they need to be at the San Siro for a clash with AC Milan. It’ll also be the second straight week with a Wednesday game, as the Coppa Italia semifinal against Juventus falls a week earlier.

It’s yet another hurdle for Vincenzo Italiano’s men to surmount if they want to finish in the European places, although that eventuality appears less likely by the day. After the Friulian health authorities blocked Udinese’s flight to Florence following 9 positive cases in the first team, there were some questions about a forfeit, although the furor caused by previous similar cases meant there was always likely to be a replay instead.

Everyone’s irritated, too. The players have another fixture stuffed into an already busy and stressful stretch of the season. The fans who go to the game will have to show up on a weeknight instead of a weekend, which means fewer will make it in, leading to smaller ticket revenues for the club and a diminished atmosphere. For those of us who live on other continents, carving out time to watch during work adds another wrinkle.

Dropping a fixture in the midweek scrambles things for everyone no matter when it is, but I don’t think it’s unfair to wonder why it took Serie A eighty four (84) days to reschedule this one. If nothing else, it’s a nice reminder that this league is laughably incapable of not shooting itself in the foot. You know, if the non-stop racism and financial investigations and various other extracurricular activities had dropped off your radar.