ITALY’S SERIE A have confirmed that Napoli’s potential title decider with Salernitana will be pushed back by a day to Sunday, with kick-off set for 3pm [1pm GMT].
The decision, already revealed by a source to AFP late Thursday, follows a request by officials in Naples worried about public order in the southern Italian city.
Napoli could be crowned champions for the first time since 1990 on Sunday if they win against Salernitana at home, and second-placed Lazio either draw or lose their match against Inter Milan earlier in the day.
Wild partying was expected in tourist hotspot Naples on Saturday, when Napoli was originally due to play Salernitana, raising security concerns.
Naples Prefect Claudio Palomba said on Thursday that the match would be pushed back a day as “the need arose to avoid events overlapping in order to help the police”.
A major comic book convention is also being staged in Naples on Saturday, expected to draw legions of people to the city.
“Had we kept the match on Saturday we would have had to double our resources and for that reason we have adopted a number of measures,” Palomba added.
The Serie A statement also confirmed that Napoli’s following match, at Udinese, will be moved from Tuesday, 2 May to Thursday, 4 May.
Napoli need a maximum of five points to secure the title so that game could end up being the decisive fixture in a long-awaited title win.
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