While the club have been targeted for criticism by Juventus, the region’s president says the response should be very different
Napoli should be thanked for not risking the health of Juventus superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, according to Vincenzo De Luca, president of the Campania region of Italy.
After two players from the squad tested positive for Covid-19, the local health authority (ASL), decided to prevent them from travelling to an away Serie A fixture with the league champions.
Despite this decree, Juventus were angered by the inability of the fixture to go ahead, claiming that protocols were not followed.
De Luca, though, has taken to the defence of his region’s most successful club. “Nobody has thanked us for preventing Cristiano Ronaldo from getting the virus,” he explained on a Facebook video. “Try and imagine it. If Napoli had travelled with several positive cases in their squad like Genoa did. If Ronaldo had got the virus a week later, we would have hit the front pages even of the New York Times.
“The protocol is no good when it comes to health and the laws. Napoli didn’t travel because the ASL decided that and Juventus ended up going to play with the ball boys.
“The players, from a health point of view, are subjected to the same rules as all Italian citizens. And, therefore, Napoli will not play because they have been quarantined by the ASL.
“Juventus, through the words of president Andrea Agnelli, made a painful statement, embarrassing. ‘Since there’s a protocol, we will go to the stadium,’ they declared.
“The Juventus president is a man who is passionate, not only about football, but philosophy too. And that’s why I remind him of what Schopenauer said: ‘Honour has not to be won; it must only not be lost.’
“If I had behaved in this way, I would have felt that I lost my sporting honour. “We are talking about sport, sporting values, sporting loyalty, honest competition and respect for our opponents.
“But how can we reduce ourselves to the pettiness of pretending to win a match when the antagonists are quarantined by the ASL and not by their own will?”
Napoli have won both their Serie A fixtures to date this season, while Juventus have four points from their two games under new boss Andrea Pirlo.
