Victor Osimhen and his Napoli teammates have suffered the consequence of refusing to go to Turin to play Juventus in their Serie A week-three fixture on October 4 due to a Covid-19 scare.
On Wednesday, the Serie A Disciplinary Commission ruled that there was no “force majeure” preventing Napoli from travelling despite two positive coronavirus tests and gave the match 3-0 to Juventus. Napoli also suffered one point deduction for failing to turn up for their Serie A clash in Turin.
Gennaro Gattuso’s side remained in isolation on the instructions of health authorities in the Campania region after Eljif Elmas and Piotr Zielinski tested positive, and they did not travel to Turin on October 4.
Serie A ruled “the complaint lodged by Napoli regarding the legality of the match is to be considered inadmissible”.
Italy’s top flight is applying UEFA rules that say a match can take place as long as a side have 13 healthy players, including a goalkeeper.
The only possible exemption would be a club which has an active outbreak of Covid-19 with more than 10 new positive cases in a week.
In that case the club can request a postponement, but only once in the season, which was the case of Genoa’s game against Torino the same weekend.
As a result of the decision, champions Juventus have now moved up fourth in Serie A, with Napoli now eighth with five points.
Osimhen and his teammates who only returned to their homes on Tuesday after the mandatory 14-day self-isolation at the club’s Castel Volturno training ground, will be under pressure to win their home game against last season’s Champions League quarter finalists Atalanta on Saturday.
Atalanta have won three out of the three matches they have played at the start of this current Serie A season so far and will be looking to build on that with the trip to Naples.
Napoli have similarly won their first two matches this season as they target a first Serie A title in 30 years.
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