A day of ordinary confusion that took place at the top levels of Serie A. Yesterday evening the Mayor of Bologna Matteo Lepore, with an ordinance, arranged for the postponement of the Bologna-Milan match on Saturday with this ordinance: “Bologna-Milan will not be played on Saturday at the Dall’Ara. The Mayor, having consulted the Police Commissioner and the Prefect, this afternoon signed an ordinance ordering the suspension of the football match scheduled for Saturday 26 October 2024 at 6pm at the Renato Dall’Ara stadium. Following the floods which have affected the Municipality of Bologna since 19 October, in some areas of the city and in particular in the Porto-Saragozza district (precisely where the Dall’Ara Stadium is located), intense activities to restore the situation in public areas and private properties in recent days and the weather forecast for the next few days do not allow us to predict a return to normality in the next few hours, also given the weather alert issued for the day. tomorrow’s Bologna-Milan match would also bring around 35,000 people to the Dall’Ara stadium, in via Andrea Costa and therefore near the most critical area of the city, with consequent public order problems due to the presence of fans and the closure. of traffic throughout the surrounding area from early afternoon and into the night. All this would create considerable difficulties for ongoing operations and would aggravate the context in which that area already finds itself, creating risks for the safety and security of people. The need to suspend the Bologna/Milan match was shared by the Mayor during this afternoon’s meeting of the Rescue Coordination Center held at the Bologna Prefecture.”
An ordinance that did not go down well with the Lega Serie A. At present the match could not be played at the Dall’Ara and the only possible scenario, from this point of view, is linked to a step backwards by Lepore. Tomorrow, the prefect will meet the mayor of Bologna to understand if there is room for a step backwards.
If this is not the case, various scenarios open up. The body responsible for organizing the championships is the Lega Serie A, which considers it unrealistic to postpone the match, given the congestion of the calendar: the European commitments of the two teams, both in the Champions League, also weigh on it. The most welcome solution in via Rosellini is to play behind closed doors, given that the pitch is currently usable: no opposition from Milan, while Bologna would be against it, also because in this way they would lose the proceeds from the match.
If an agreement is not reached, there are two other viable options: 0-3 forfeit for Bologna, who at that point would not have a pitch available, or the match taking place on a neutral pitch. Both, we remember, fall within the competence of the League.