Head coach Simone Inzaghi of SS Lazio looks on prior to the Serie A match between SS Lazio and Torino FC at Stadio Olimpico on March 2, 2021 in Rome, Italy. FC Torino was blocked by the local health facility due to Corona.
Lazio's home match against Torino ended in farce after the visitors failed to show up at the Stadio Olimpico.
The Torino squad was instructed to quarantine by the local health authority ahead of the game - scheduled to kick off at 6.30pm in the Italian capital - after registering eight cases of the British variant of the coronavirus.
However, the Serie A council had unanimously decided in an urgent meeting on Tuesday that the game in Rome should go ahead as planned, despite Torino's match at Sassuolo having been suspended five days earlier.
As a result, Simone Inzaghi's squad arrived at the ground, ready to play the fixture, while their opponents remained 430 miles away.
It was not until 45 minutes after the scheduled kick-off that the game was abandoned.
Torino could be handed a 3-0 defeat and deducted a point for failing to turn up for the scheduled kickoff.
🏟 Biancocelesti allo Stadio Olimpico per #LazioTorino #CMonEagles 🦅 pic.twitter.com/Ya9BSzuMES
— S.S.Lazio (@OfficialSSLazio) March 2, 2021
That is the punishment handed to Napoli in October after they did not travel to Turin for a Serie A match against champions Juventus, saying the ASL had told them to stay at home following positive COVID-19 cases.
It resulted in chaotic scenes at the Allianz Stadium as the Juve squad and match officials turned up and had to wait until 45 minutes after the scheduled kickoff time before the game could be officially abandoned.
Napoli later successfully appealed against the punishment to the Italian Olympic Committee Guarantee Board, Italian sport's highest tribunal, and Serie A President Paolo Dal Pino conceded that the Torino case could be heading the same way.
'For us the game must go ahead, but if there is a hard and restrictive attitude from the ASL, we must also make evaluations based on the decision of the CONI Guarantee Board, who unfortunately set a legal precedent with the Juve-Napoli case,' Dal Pino told Gr Parlamento radio.
