Serie A players to start individual training sessions

ROME — Italy offered Serie A clubs a glimmer of hope on Sunday after it said footballers could take part in individual training sessions as the strictest coronavirus lockdown measures begin to ease.

The interior ministry’s goahead for players to attend their club’s training facilities offered fans in the football-mad country the first sign that the 2019-20 season might yet be saved.

Matches were abandoned on March 9 in the face of a health crisis that has now officially claimed nearly 29,000 lives in Italy and 245,000 worldwide.

Some of the bigger clubs with title aspirations from the less affected regions have been talking about going back to training for weeks.

But Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte only allowed teams to resume organised activities on May 18 — a date that might push back this season’s completion into the start of the next.

Several regions that have avoided the worst of the pandemic have taken matters into their own hands and allowed clubs to open their facilities for players to train on their own.

Teams such as Napoli and Parma have followed the lead of Lazio — trailing leaders Juventus by just a point — and gave the nod for players to return.

They insisted that they were not breaking the rules because Conte has allowed all Italians to start exercising in open public places starting Monday.

The interior ministry bowed to the seemingly inevitable on Sunday and agreed that teams can open their facilities to players for training. “Athletes, professional or otherwise, of non-individual sports are allowed — just as every citizen — to exercise in public or private areas,” the interior ministry said.

But players must “respect social distancing rules of at least two metres and the ban on public gatherings.”-