The second leg of the Serie B relegation play-off between Sampdoria and Salernitana has been postponed by 48 hours after a number of Salernitana players and staff were admitted to hospital with food poisoning.
Salernitana had a formal request to reschedule the match accepted after 21 of their travelling party became ill after flying back from Genoa following Sunday’s 2-0 defeat in the first leg.
The second leg, originally scheduled for Friday (19:30 GMT) in Salerno, will now be played on Sunday at the same time.
Salernitana, who face relegation to Italy’s third tier after dropping out of Serie A 12 months ago, were unable to train on Monday.
“We are truly shocked by what happened and by the series of events that risk jeopardising Salernitana’s smooth and peaceful approach to the final and crucial minutes of the season,” club CEO Maurizio Milan said.
“Many players and staff, at the moment, are not even able to show up at the sports centre to resume training.”
Salernitana have also called for an investigation into the “causes of this widespread and serious episode”.
They had been due to play Frosinone in the relegation play-off, but a four-point deduction for Brescia because of financial irregularities meant they were automatically relegated in place of Sampdoria, who then replaced Frosinone in the play-off.
