"The College of Guarantee has evaluated the acts of the health authority, which according to Italian law is responsible for establishing, even in cases like this, whether a team can leave for an away match or not. We considered that, already on October 3, 2020, the competent ASL had established that - given the presence of positive cases - there was an obligation of isolation that would have prevented the preparation to leave for Turin. The same federal protocol of the FIGC referred to the resolutions of the national and regional health authorities, therefore the ASL, which is the only authority that must determine if there are risks to public safety or not ".
Franco Frattini, president of the College of Guarantee of Sport, explains to Sky the reasons why Napoli's appeal on the match not played with Juventus was upheld, canceling the knockout and the penalty point for the Neapolitans.
"I believe there is a principle of hierarchy of sources - underlines Frattini -. In many judgments I have established the absolute autonomy of the sports system that must be safeguarded. But, in the event of a pandemic in progress, it is right that the protocol accepted by the organizations sports has recognized the final decision-making power to the public health authority.
The idea of the bubble, that is, you can decide, in derogation from the prohibition, to play on the bubble, cannot be an obligation but a faculty.
The ASL has assessed that this faculty could not be exercised in that specific case and not even on the bubble could be played ".
A ruling that overturned the decisions of the sports judge and the Federal Court of Appeal.
"With the reform of sports justice in 2014, a sort of sports court was created - concludes Frattini -, that is the College of Guarantee, which is outside the justice of the Federations. For the first time we have a body completely detached from the justice of the individual Federations, because we judge on all matters by all courts of all Federations. It is possible that the judgments are very different. It is the guarantee that there is a top-level sports system totally independent from the Federations. "