Up to 1,000 fans to be allowed into Serie A matches

A view of the empty stadium during the Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Genoa at the San Siro stadium, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, March 8, 2020. Serie A played on Sunday despite calls from Italy’s sports minister and players’ association president to suspend the games in Italy’s top soccer division. (Antonio Calanni/AP)

ROME — Up to 1,000 fans will be allowed into stadiums for Serie A matches from Sunday.

The Italian government agreed to open the stadiums to a limited number of fans following a meeting between the health and sports ministers, and other politicians, on Saturday.

Several regional authorities such as Emilia-Romagna, Veneto and Lombardy had already passed individual rulings allowing fans into Serie A stadiums in their regions.

“In order not to have disparity between the teams and as an experiment in view of further openings, I asked that this decision be extended to the whole of the national territory,” Vincenzo Spadafora, the sports minister, wrote in a post on his Facebook page.

The situation will be reviewed Oct. 7 based on the latest coronavirus data in Italy.

The Italian health ministry reported another 1,638 new cases of coronavirus and 24 deaths on Saturday.

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