Italian supercup, farewell to'Arabia and possible return to'ancient

Interviewed by Sport Mediaset before the start of the Italian Super Cup final between Napoli and Bologna, Lega di Serie A President Ezio Maria Simonelli announced a farewell to Riyadh as the competition venue and a probable return to the old days.

“We have already had the Super Cup here for several seasons and the results have always been positive. Next year it will not be in Riyad because we will have the Asian Cup. We don’t know where yet.”

“Probably, not having the constraint that we have now of the double challenge, semifinal and final, perhaps we will return to what was the spirit of the single final, anticipated precisely by the match that sees the winner of the Coppa Italia, Bologna, and the winner of the Scudetto, Napoli, face each other. So a kind of return to the origins that is perhaps auspicious.”

Then Simonelli spoke about the skipped project of having Milan-Como played in Perth: “We had accepted requests that from a sporting point of view we did not like, particularly the referees. However, in order to bring the Italian league abroad and be the forerunners of this innovation, we had digested this bitter pill.”

“After this effort, although maybe very good Asian referees, further demands were made on us in the night and this morning I called an emergency meeting of the board and they were deemed unacceptable and so we informed Australia that we could not accept these demands. The CEO will be better at explaining these concepts, but financial cover had been requested.”

“Where and when it will be played will depend on a series of fits and starts and the Champions League playoffs. It will be played at the San Siro on the first useful date as soon as it is cleared by the Olympics, but first we should wait until January 31.”