Because it would be a serious mistake to open stadiums only for European football players
The speech by Enzo Mazza, CEO of Fimi (Federation of the Italian music industry)
For a year, large live events, in particular live concerts, have in fact stopped, except for a small and limited summer window, in 2020, however, with a minimum number of spectators, absolutely unable to guarantee an economic return.
Despite the evidence of null cases of contagion thanks to health protocols, the events have been stopped again since October and never restored. Although there have been proposals from many sides for plans and protocols for the restart, the government agenda has absolutely not foreseen, to date, any initiative or consultation table, as is happening instead in the United Kingdom or the United States.
The surprise was therefore great among the insiders of the music sector when it was announced by Minister Speranza that the Government is committed to guaranteeing measures to allow four matches of the next European football championships, as requested by UEFA, to take place. can play with a maximum capacity of 25% in Italian stadiums.
Once again, one gets the impression that music and live entertainment are considered an unnecessary and expendable side dish in the face of a huge tragedy such as the pandemic. But is not so. The world of music, just recently, with very sophisticated protocols and efficient security measures, was able to create an event like the Sanremo Festival, with an enormous commitment also from Rai, and which was successful without any health consequences.
The risk of discrimination being generated, with a sector such as football that suddenly finds itself faced with an opening of the stadiums while at the same time the major tours are canceled or postponed to 2022 due to lack of certainty by the institutions is concrete, with the insult that would add to the damage.
Minister Franceschini took the point by promising an initiative to define the protocol that will allow events to be carried out safely but this decision must be resolved in concrete action, with executive models that can be implemented in the field as soon as health conditions permit. . Live events require long-term planning and programming that is not possible today without a protocol certified by the institutions. Therefore it is even more surprising that in the face of UEFA's requests, we can venture to provide safe guarantees, leaving other sectors, with thousands of employees at the mercy of uncertainty and the economic crisis.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/perche-sarebbe-un-grave-errore-aprire-gli-stadi-solo-per-gli-europei-di-calcio/ on Wed, 07 Apr 2021 08:54:18 +0000.