Inter Milan’s match against Roma was postponed due to a confrontation with Pope Francis funeral that the Vatican announced on Saturday, said Serie a Tuesday. Serie A said that the three games scheduled for Saturday would be reprogrammed, with Inter’s – moved to Sunday at 1300 GMT – being the most profile when they dispute the title of the League with Napoli. The decision comes after the Italian government announced on Tuesday five days of national mourning for François, the chief of the 1.4 billion world Catholics, who died at his Vatican home on Monday at the age of 88 after undergoing a stroke.
He recovered from a double pneumonia which saw him hospitalized for five weeks.
The Italian Olympic Committee Coni, the largest sports body in the country, “invited” all the other federations to suspend any event scheduled for Saturday.
Coni also asked a minute of silence of all the sporting events organized during the national mourning days.
The other two Serie A games were postponed from Como V Genoa, moved to 1030 GMT on Sunday, and Lazio’s home match with Parma, which will be played on Monday to prevent fans from rushing to the Stadio of Rome Olimpico the same day as the funeral.
The Olimpico is about three kilometers from the city of the Vatican and the Prati and Della Vittoria districts which separate the two are often paralyzed by a combination of fans and tourism traffic on match days.
The reprogramming causes the biggest problems for the Inter which bid for Serie A, the Champions League and the treble of the Italian Cup.
Inter is at 71 points with Napoli, who welcomes Torino on Sunday, at the Série de Serie A and would face the local Rivals of AC Milan in the first leg of the Cup semi-finals, with Barcelona while waiting a week later.
The Italian champions have already played 50 games this season and take place for at least 11 others by the end of June due to the reorganization of the Club World Cup in the United States.
Four matches of the last day which were scheduled for Monday, will now be played on Wednesday at 1830, local time (1630 GMT), with hunters of the Champions League Juventus playing in Parma.
(This story has not been published by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a unionized flow.)
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