MILAN, Italy — Palermo is planning to ask the Italian league judge to annul a 1-0 loss to AS Roma because a ball boy affected the goal.
Amantino Mancini connected on a header off a corner in the 59th minute of Saturday’s Serie A game after a ball boy at Stadio Olimpico placed the ball for the corner to help Roma catch Palermo off guard.
"It’s against the rules," Palermo president Maurizio Zamparini told Tuesday’s Gazzetta dello Sport.
Zamparini said his club will request it be awarded a 3-0 victory or replay the game.
"I’m more for replaying it because that would be fairer, although it’s also true that when someone breaks the rules they have to pay," Zamparini said.
"From what I can tell, they won’t grant either the first or second option. In fact, knowing our system, I’m sure the result will remain as it was on the field and Roma will keep the three points it got with trickery."
Italian league rules stipulate that ball boys must remain behind the advertising signs lining the field.
"It’s a first. As far as I can remember, it’s never happened in the history of Italian soccer," league sporting judge Gianpaolo Tosel told the ANSA news agency.
Tosel was to decide later Tuesday whether to confirm the game’s result, or delay his decision and wait for Palermo to file its appeal.