JAKARTA - The COVID-19 pandemic or the corona virus has really hit all sectors of life, including football. Leagues in a number of countries have been suspended indefinitely and have left a big question mark on how they will determine their champions. Now, a petition has appeared in cyberspace to give Atalanta the title of the Italian League Serie A 2019-2020 or Scudetto.
Bergamo, the home city of Atalanta, is the worst hit by the corona virus pandemic in Italy. Launching Football Italia, Sunday, April 5, it was recorded that 15,362 people had died from COVID-19 in Italy and 8,656 of them occurred in the province of Lombardia.
The Champions League match between Atalanta and Valencia in Milan is even considered the culprit for the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak in Spain. As many as 35 percent of Los Che's squad were exposed to this deadly virus.
Bergamo is a small town in Lombardy with a population of 120 thousand people, so the fact that more than 4,500 people died there is a shocking fact.
On social media, a video has even circulated showing soldiers in Bergamo having to carry the bodies of the victims out of the city because the crematorium there was unable to accommodate the high number of victims.
The mayor of Bergamo described their city as a "biological bomb". Even though the worst-affected area in Italy has a world-class health care system that is often praised by the World Health Organization (WHO).
These reasons underlie the petition posted on the change.org page to hand over the Scudetto title to Atalanta, who this season also made a surprise appearance to the Champions League quarter-finals before football was suspended.
The petition cited the award of the Scudetto to Atalanta in appreciation of "the sporting achievements of the past two years and respect for the city of Bergamo, as a symbol of Italy's suffering during the coronavirus pandemic."
Previously, Juventus had made it clear that they did not want to win the title if the 2019-2020 Serie A Italian League was canceled even though they are currently at the top of the standings one point ahead of Lazio.
Meanwhile, recently President Brescia Massimo Cellino also threatened to resign if the 2019-2020 Serie A Italian League continued, for humanitarian reasons.
Atalanta throughout history has never won the Italian League Serie A and this season made his debut in the Champions League.
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