So, about that Fiorentina-Udinese match...

Remember two days ago when I warned you that Fiorentina has Covid cases in all three major squads? Well, the Viola aren’t the only club affected by the virus. Fiorentina’s first match of Serie A’s second round, against Udinese, is set to be postponed following nine positive Covid cases in the Bianconeri’s squad.

We knew yesterday that seven players had tested positive, but with an additional two positive results today, Udinese’s flight from Trieste was blocked by the Fruili ASL. Udinese has now formally requested to the league that the match be postponed, and we’ll have to see what unfolds from here.

Like other major sports leagues around the globe, Serie A’s guidelines for the threshold at which a match should be postponed are non-existent. Specifically, the league has said that no matches will be postponed. However, when local health authorities are not allowing teams to travel, inevitably this will lead to the mess we see unfolding now. Despite the league’s posturing, expect this match to be postponed and played midweek later this winter. While a forfeit for Udinese is possible, don’t expect it to happen given past precedent. That is, Udinese’s last match against Salernitana was postponed just two weeks ago due to a spike of cases for the Granata.

You would think given Udinese Technical Director Pierpaolo Merino’s words two weeks ago, the club would have not asked to postpone.

“The league is right not to postpone the game. They have a duty to protect the regularity of the league season and a game must not be postponed because a player tests positive,”

Interestingly enough, now that his team is the one with Covid, he wants to postpone the match! All jokes aside, while postponing one match is not an issue, if Omnicron continues to ravage Serie A, fixture congestion could become an issue for the Viola. For now, the squad must turn their attention to Sunday’s fixture against Torino. Oh wait... Torino is having an outbreak too. Buckle up, folks. We might not be seeing Fiorentina for a little while.