Ex-Leeds owner Cellino reveals he and daughter tested positive for coronavirus as he slams plans to resume Serie A
BRESCIA owner Massimo Cellino has once again hit out at Serie A plans to complete the season after revealing he and his daughter have tested positive for coronavirus.
The former Leeds chief says he caught the deadly illness while jetting around Italy despite a strict lockdown being in place across the country.
And while suffering from “excessive tiredness” and “severe bone pain”, Cellino, 63, believes it is unthinkable to recommence football any time soon.
Amid tentative plans to resume Serie A next month, he told La Repubblica: “I’ve been in Cagliari for a few days, after completing three weeks of quarantine in Brescia.
“Then I spent Easter in Sardinia with my family, I took a private plane and I returned. After two weeks of quarantine in Cagliari I went to the hospital for checks.
“It turned out that my daughter had the virus, my son didn’t have it. And that I have it.
“I have excessive tiredness and severe pain in my bones. It is bad for the liver.
“But for football, it is absurd that there is still a debate as to whether or not to start playing.”
MAY DAY
The number of confirmed deaths from coronavirus in Italy is gradually declining, reaching a month-low daily total of 482 on Saturday.
Since the outbreak began, Covid-19 has claimed 23,227 lives in the country as it became one of the earliest and worst-hit by the pandemic.
However plans are already afoot to restart Serie A next month – albeit without fans inside stadiums for the rest of the calendar year.
Cellino, who has previously vowed to boycott any games bottom club Brescia are told to play in 2019/20, feels more must be done to help clubs in financial woe when TV rights and prize money become lost to the pandemic.
He added: “There is not the slightest sensitivity and there is not the slightest respect in asking me to start the championship in Lombardy again.
“I am not afraid of getting relegated, in Serie B maybe we would do the same but we will return to Serie A, I have young players and the accounts are fine.
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“In Serie A there is about £155million destined for the top ten of the final table. And these prizes have already been invoiced by these clubs.
“Now, if you don’t finish the championship and Sky won’t pay, what happens to those who have already spent that money?
“If the churches do not reopen in phase two, how do you restart Serie A?
“I ask the FA and league presidents to take responsibility. Next year we risk having ten Serie A clubs go bankrupt.”
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