Serie A: postponed games to be played next day unless exceptions | OneFootball

As anticipated by President Ezio Simonelli on the sidelines of the Lega Serie A assembly last July, the top-flight clubs have approved a new regulation regarding the recovery of unstarted matches and the continuation of interrupted ones. The amendment, which comes after a season marked by controversy and application uncertainties, finally introduces an objective criterion: in general, suspended or unplayed games will have to be recovered the following day, unless specific and well-coded obstacles intervene.

Serie A, new rules for postponed and suspended matches: play the day after, except for exceptions

The new regulation, valid for Serie A and Primavera 1, will be shared with other federal components, starting from Lega B and Lega Pro, who can adopt it as a reference. The intention is to overcome the interpretative ambiguities that have complicated the management of postponed or suspended matches in recent years, ensuring instead a stable and transparent procedural framework.

In detail, the recovery of the match the following day will be possible only if the field is practicable, there are no overlaps with FIFA windows that require the release of players, and there are no other official commitments too close to the calendar. The same principle will apply to interrupted matches, which will be resumed from the exact minute they were suspended, maintaining the game situation unchanged at the time of the stop, as per the referee's report. Also in this case, unless there are objective obstacles, the game will resume the following day.

A significant novelty also concerns the management of registered players. For the continuation of an interrupted match, players who were registered at the time of the interruption can be employed, except for those who have changed teams or are disqualified in the meantime. Each club can also insert up to three players registered subsequently, provided they do not come from the opposing team. However, it will not be possible to re-employ expelled or substituted players from the first part of the game, and the number of remaining substitutions will be calculated taking into account those already made. The League's goal is to minimize discretion and uniform behavior, offering clubs and spectators a clear regulatory framework, able to strengthen the fairness of the championship even in moments of greater organizational complexity.

Andrea Alati

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.