Milan-Como in Perth: Serie A postpones announcement of advances and postponements of the 23rd and 24th matchdays

The press release on the advances and postponements of the twenty-third and twenty-fourth matchdays of Serie A, i.e. those that will take place at the beginning of February, was not released as had been expected at the beginning of the season by Via Rosellini. Reason? One of the matches of the twenty-fourth day is the now famous AC Milan-Como which the president of the League, Ezio Simonelli, has announced will be played in Perth, Australia on 8 February. However, underlining that “some things still need to be put in place”. Among these things to be sorted out are the written authorizations for the match in Perth from FIFA and the AFC, the Asian football confederation. Once the refereeing issue has been resolved, with Serie A having accepted that an Asian or Australian match director will direct the match (ditto all his collaborators, including Var and Avar), the rest should be less complicated to make ends meet. Due to Rosellini, however, it is not possible to issue an official statement moving Milan-Como from San Siro, the official stadium for their matches chosen by the Rossoneri, to another venue (the very modern Optus Stadium in Perth) if all the authorizations are not in place. This is why the calendar of the twenty-third and twenty-fourth day will slip by a few hours or at most a few days.

watch out for the cup

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Milan, out of the Italian Cup and the Italian Super Cup, will only play in the league from now until the end of the season. Como, however, is still in the running for the Italian Cup and must play its eighth match on the Fiorentina pitch on Tuesday 27 January. If Fabregas’ team goes through, the quarter-finals are scheduled for 4 or 11 February, with Mediaset placing them on four prime time slots in those two weeks. The opponent will be Napoli, already qualified and the Larians will have the advantage of home advantage (dry match). And here the question arises: when will Como play given that the possible dates for the quarter-finals are midweek, around the trip to Perth? With Milan-Como in the championship on 8 February, at 12.30pm in Italy, 8.30pm in Australia, the possible Como-Napoli in the Italian Cup could be staged on Tuesday 3 February (with Como-Atalanta in the championship brought forward to Saturday 31 January) or on Thursday 12 February. This last option must also take into account the fact that the following weekend (at this point Sunday 15th) there is Como-Fiorentina and that the Viola will play the Conference League playoffs on Thursday 19th February.

quick trip

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The rest is at the discretion of the teams: when will they leave? Milan’s orientation at first was that of a long away match or a start immediately after Bologna-Milan. When will the match between the Rossoneri and the Rossoblù be played? Sunday 1 February or Monday 2 because the rossoblù have their last match in the Europa League group on Thursday 29 January and cannot face Allegri’s team on Saturday 31 January. As mentioned, Milan had thought of leaving for Perth first to have a few more days thanks to which the team could acclimatise to the Australian summer and the change of time. Now the most popular prospect is that of a trip with fewer days. We will know soon.