Schedule chaos: Serie A offers games on Sunday and later Italian Open Final

The latest proposal for the Serie A scheduling chaos this weekend is to move the Italian Open men’s final back, bringing Roma-Lazio and the other four games to 11.00 UK (12.00 CEST).

The utterly farcical situation continues to develop, with hundreds of thousands of fans, and eight clubs, entirely unaware of when they are meant to be playing.

Because the race for Champions League places is so tight, the five teams involved all have to play simultaneously in Week 37 to ensure competitive fairness.

That means when Roma vs. Lazio is played, so must Juventus-Fiorentina, Genoa-Milan, Como-Parma and Pisa-Napoli.

The Rome Derby is the major issue here, as it was originally scheduled for 11.30 UK time (12.30 CEST) on Sunday, but the local authorities demanded it be moved to Monday evening to ensure public safety.

On the same afternoon is the men’s final of the Italian Open tennis tournament in the Foro Italico, which is right next to the Stadio Olimpico.

Having that many supporters flood through the area simultaneously, with the potential for Lazio and Roma ultras to have violent clashes, would be too risky.

The Lega Serie A launched an emergency appeal to change the decision, but meanwhile it’s reported they are proposing a double twist.

They would move Roma vs. Lazio to 11.00 UK time (12.00 CEST) and simultaneously push back the Italian Open final from the original time of 14.00 UK to 16.30 UK (17.30 CEST).

It cannot be moved to Saturday because Lazio are in the Coppa Italia Final against Inter tonight.

This is currently just an offer from the Lega Serie A of a potential solution, one that the local authorities have not yet accepted.