OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL: FIGC suspends all competitions until June 14

We have been waiting 2 ¹⁄₂ months to know, for sure, when Juventus’ next game would be. Last week, we thought it might come the weekend of June 13-14. But, as of Monday night in Italy, we’re going to be forced to wait a couple more days — at the very minimum.

(What’s a couple more days after all of this anyways?)

As stated in an official statement issued by Italian football’s governing body, the FIGC announced that all football in Italy will be suspended until June 14. This comes just as Serie A clubs — Juventus included — began training in small groups earlier in the day on Monday, and less than a week after a provisional start date of June 13 was put into place by Lega Serie A.

This means that an already serious time crunch will have just a few less days to work with if the 2019-20 season does end up getting back up and running again. While this isn’t a major wrench in Serie A’s plans to finish the season, the fact that there’s already things getting pushed back at least a couple of days makes this even the more of a (potential) logistical nightmare down the road.

The goal, at least when it pertained to last week’s announcement, was to have the season finish by Aug. 2.

The biggest sticking point right now is the medical protocol — a model that Serie A wants to model after what is happening in Germany and Spain with players who test positive immediately going into isolation rather than an entire team going into quarantine. The latest version of the protocol is expected to be announced within the next couple of days, with the FIGC giving it to Minister of Sport Vincenzo Spadafora.

If this latest version of the medical protocol is agreed to, we could very well see a concrete start date set in place and a schedule actually come into form. That is, of course, unless the potential restart date gets pushed back once again like what has happened here.