Italian soccer club, down to 7 players, loses 20-0
Serie C crisis club Pro Piacenza were beaten 20-0 at Cuneo on Sunday after being able to field only seven players to start the match, the minimum number needed for a game.
Pro Piacenza, whose players were all aged between 16 and 19 and were managed by 19-year-old captain Nicola Cirigliano, were down 16-0 at half-time in the Italian third-tier clash.
Their regular playing and coaching staff had refused to travel to Cuneo because of their ongoing wait for overdue wages.
Six of Pro Piacenza’s players were only 17 while an eighth had left his identity papers behind and, as a result, was unable to play in a fixture that the Lega Pro had only given the green light for earlier in the week, after previously postponing all of their fixtures due to the financial insecurity surrounding the club.
The eighth player finally came on an hour later after returning with his ID, but Piacenza were reduced to seven again 15 minutes later when a player went off injured.
Local media outlet Sport Piacenza abandoned its reporting of the match, writing that readers would be informed of the final result once the “farce” was over.
“What happened at Cuneo with Pro Piacenza is an insult to the sport and its founding principles,” Italian football federation president Gabriele Gravina said.
“Our responsibility is to protect the fans … and the credibility of our championships,” Gravina said, adding that the game “which we just witnessed, against our will, will be the last farce.”
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Pro Piacenza had already forfeited three games in Serie C this season and played on Sunday because to miss a fourth would have seen them expelled under league rules.
The club, suffering severe financial problems, was sold for a nominal €1 last summer.
Senior players had been on strike and then left over non-payment of wages, while those on loan returned to their parent clubs.
Pro Piacenza, which have changed their general manager four times in six months, prop up the rest of the division with just eight points, and relegation is inevitable even if the club gets through the rest of the season.
Cueno, who before the game had scored 18 goals all season, went 17-0 up with 20 minutes remaining, scoring their 20th goal in the 90th minute.
Information from ESPN FC Italy correspondent Ben Gladwell was used in this report.