Italian Sport and CORONAVIRUS – Updates

Yesterday, March 4th 2020, the Italian Government made another decree about the difficulties that Italy is going through due to the CORONAVIRUS. If every single Italian will not follow those guidelines, the entire Italian Health System will collapse because it will not be able to cure every single diseased.

Mr. Giuseppe Conte – Italian Prime Minister

We want to focus about what concerns us…the sport. It seems that every sport event will be posponed after April 3rd 2020. So also the Finswimming Spring Italian Championships 2020, scheduled in Lignano Sabbiadoro on March 21st-22nd 2020, should be postponed…or held only if able to follow some rules…like 1 mt from each others (very difficult in a swimming pool with more than 300 finswimmers) and with no external audience…(parents?)

We will wait for further news.

This is the full text published by FIPSAS and translated:

Following the Decree of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, issued yesterday March 4 (visible here), the interruption and postponement of all competitions, events, conventions, meetings and various meetings is arranged until April 3rd 2020

In this regard, it should be noted that Article 1 points a) and b) of the aforementioned Decree governs the suspension, as mentioned above, of all congresses, meetings etc., “carried out in every place, both public and private, which involve crowding of people that does not allow compliance with the safety distance of at least 1 m.”

In the same art.1 point c), on the other hand, sports activity and the way of behaving in the same is regulated. In this regard, the text in question is quoted, which quotes: “sports events and competitions of all types and disciplines held in every place, both public and private, are also suspended; however, in municipalities other than those listed in Annex 1 to the Decree of the Prime Minister of 1 March 2020, and subsequent amendments, the holding of the aforementioned events and competitions, as well as the training sessions of competitive athletes, is still allowed inside sports facilities used behind closed doors, or outdoors without the presence of the public; in all such cases, the associations or sports clubs, by means of their medical staff, are required to carry out the appropriate checks to contain the risk of the spread of the COVID-19 virus among athletes, technicians, managers and all accompanying persons who participate.”

The same Decree reports in art. 2 the “Information and prevention measures on the whole national territory” to which you are kindly requested to comply in order to avoid problems of possible infections. More specifically, it should be noted that as regards our sporting events that take place outdoors, the absolute ban on their dispute must naturally be implemented for all those events or competitions involving the presence of the public and the movement of athletes from one province to another or from one region to another.

As for the provincial sporting events that take place outdoors, these must be, as far as possible, postponed until after April 3 and, in the event that it is not possible to postpone them, they must be played in the complete absence of the public, and avoiding, in the most absolute way, morning gatherings and gatherings due to the award ceremonies in rooms or halls or even outdoors.

The possibility of dispute of provincial demonstrations is however subject to the fact that there are no provisions, decrees or norms issued by the various local administrations such as Regions, Provinces, Municipalities or Prefectures etc. which place further restrictions on our business.

Hoping that an improvement in the epidemic situation will allow us to reduce the closing period for the holding of our demonstrations, today set for April 3, I greet you dearly, promising to inform you immediately if there are future news.

The Federal President

Prof. Ugo Claudio Matteoli