Reports: Postponed Derby d’Italia to be rescheduled again, this time to March 9

There has been a lot of commotion — most of it coming from the Milan side of the rivalry — about the the Derby d’Italia that was supposed to be played this past weekend getting rescheduled until the final weeks of the season in May due to the coronavirus outbreak in Italy.

Inter sporting director Beppe Marotta chimed in with some spicy takes that reminded you just who signs his checks these days. Others in Milan chimed in. Very few people in Inter’s upper management didn’t have some kind of opinion about things going from closed doors to moved to May 13

Well, it looks like the second Derby d’Italia is on the move again.

According to reports from La Gazzetta dello Sport and Goal Italia’s Romeo Agresti, a meeting between the Italian Football Federation and Lega Serie A officials has resulted in Juventus-Inter having a brand new kickoff date: March 9. Essentially, the games that were postponed this past weekend will now be played this weekend, with Juventus and Inter capping the weekend with a Monday night kickoff.

As a result, La Gazzetta says, this weekend’s regularly scheduled games will be pushed back as well, with what was going to be played this weekend now taking the place of the fixture after that. (In short, everything gets pushed back a week.) That means Juventus’ trip to Bologna that was set for this Sunday night will now be played on Friday, March 13, according to La Gazzetta.

Pushing everything back a week — remember, this has not yet been officially announced by Serie A or the Italian Football Federation — now means that the penultimate week of the season would have been the midweek round where the Derby d’Italia was first rescheduled for. The season would still end the weekend of May 23-24.

With the way that the coronavirus situation has progressed in Italy over the last week or so, we could be sitting here in 48 hours or so and talking about Juventus’ Coppa Italia semifinal against Milan being called off for all we know. As of right now, that game is going to go ahead as scheduled, although it will have crowd restrictions on who can attend. (Basically, if you’re from one of Italy’s coronavirus hotspots, you’re SOL if you want to get into Allianz Stadium.)

And just since it’s relevant to the reports of the Derby d’Italia being moved back up to March 9, earlier Monday brought us a report from French outlet L’Equipe that Juventus’ Champions League Round of 16 second leg tie against Lyon could be played behind closed doors due to the coronavirus outbreak. So, basically, if you think you have a complete understanding of everything that is going on, you deserve to be saluted.