Even more good news for the Azzurre:

Vincenzo Spadafora’s ‘Five Decrees’ (’Reforms’) to the sporting laws of Italy have been passed by an assembled Council of Ministers. Among the five reforms is one that will help professionalize women’s sports in Italy.

So, as it stands, Serie A Femminile is on course to become a professional league by 2022/2023.

Had the reforms not been passed, then it would have set the women’s movement back, as these measures needed to be in place for the professionalization to actually happen.

However, not everyone is happy with the fact that the reforms have been passed. In fact, even the FIGC asked for them to delay the vote on this, due to how football has been hurt by the pandemic.

There’s also talk of pushing the implementation of the reforms back to 2023 too. 

So, stay tuned.

The FIGC’s next Consiglio Federale will be on June 25th.

The next meeting will center around il calcio femminile in Italy.

During the meeting, the organization structure of women’s football will be discussed in Italy, along with the the criteria for admittance to Serie A and Serie B.

The dates for the beginning of next season will also be discussed

The meeting will also discuss whether to assign the Serie A Femminile scudetto to Juventus for the season.

The FIGC has instituted a fund called the ‘Fondo Salva Calcio’ ('Save Football Fund') which is worth €21 million, with €5 million going to the Lega B, Lega Pro (Serie C) and LND leagues each, in order to help the teams through this crisis.

€700,000 will be given to Serie A Femminile to help all twelve teams finish the season.

The totals are for the leagues as a whole, and the funds will be divided among all the teams of the leagues.

Still, this is a good thing, especially for Serie A Femminile, as it means that the league has a good chance of restarting.

Still no word on whether the league will restart though. Hopefully, we’ll hear about it soon.

The FIGC has just finished their ‘Consiglio federale’ meeting.

Serie A, B and C will resume play and conclude the season on the pitch.

Serie C might even have playoffs to determine which of the last three teams will be relegated to Serie D.

The amateur leagues, on the other hand, will be ‘stopped’.

All that’s missing is a formal announcement from the FIGC, but many reliable sources are confirming this.

Edit: A correction, the decisions on Serie A Femminile will come at 6:30 PM CEST. We’ll know the final answer by then.

Sara Gama and Giorgio Chiellini have sent a thank you message to the healthcare workers in Italy. 

The thank you message marked the end of the  #leregoledelgioco campaign. In the upcoming days, the FIGC will launch new initiatives to help combat the coronavirus.

In addition to this, the FIGC has donated €100,000 to the National Institute for Infectious Diseases to help combat the virus.

The FIGC has joined the Italian sports ministry's campaign called #distantimauniti ('distant but united'). This is yet another preventative campaign in response to the coronavirus crisis.

Among the many stars featured in the campaign are Sara Gama, Cecilia Salvai, and Leonardo Bonucci.

The campaign was launched yesterday, alongside the #iorestoacasa (’I stay at home’) campaign. As of yesterday, the whole entire country has been on lockdown. Travel and movement have been severely restricted, and all sporting events will be suspended until April 3rd.

The four Milan players that were originally convened for the Algarve Cup have now been replaced. This was a precautionary measure due to fear of the coronavirus.

In addition, Stefania Tarenzi has now been left at home too.

Their replacements are Agnese Bonfantini, Martina Lenzini, Alice Tortelli and Arianna Caruso.

FIGC president, Gabriele Gravina, confirms that the FIGC wants the next round of football matches in Italy to be played behind closed doors. This will include Inter vs Ludogorets on Thursday, in the Europa League. The decree will also extend to the Derby d'Italia between Juventus and Inter on Sunday. The FIGC are now awaiting the government's response before they make this official. The ban, however, will not extend to Serie A Femminile, as there will be no matches for the league this weekend, due to the fact that Italy will be participating in the Algarve Tournament in early March.

On another note:

There’s been confirmation that the FIGC won’t let AC Milan hold a moment of silence for Kobe Bryant.

Kobe, if you recall, was a big AC Milan fan.

This is yet another in a long line of questionable decisions from the federation.

And just when you think the federation is starting to turn a corner, due to the news from earlier today that they’re potentially increasing spending on the women’s sector and will provide the necessary infrastructure upgrades to develop women’s football in the country ... they have to go and do this.

They have to remind you that they’re well, the FIGC.

At this point, we shouldn’t be surprised by the bad decisions from them, but it still gets to me every time. 

The FIGC has approved their new budget for 2020.

Among the highlights of the budget:

This is good news, as it means the FIGC is getting serious about developing women's football in Italy.

I’ll continue to monitor this to see just how much the FIGC will allocate for the women, and just how much they’ll spend it too. 

FIGC President, Gabriele Gravina, visits Nicolò Zaniolo in [the] hospital: "He was doing really well. He knows how important he is for the Azzurri and that's a big source of strength for him. We'll look to stay close to him throughout his recovery."

The FIGC is celebrating the accomplishments of both the men’s and women’s national teams by renovating their headquarters with pictures of both teams.

The ‘12 protagonists’ (the 12 main players) that played a pivotal role, and had the most appearances for Italy during the Women’s World Cup this summer will also be celebrated on the side of the headquarters, as their mural will be completed in the upcoming days (with the delay in its completion being caused by adverse weather in Rome).

It just goes to show you that the Azzurre have had a remarkable impact on Italy, as not too long ago, the FIGC would have focused solely on the accomplishments of the men.

(Though let’s also hope that the women will be featured elsewhere on the interior of the building, aside from elevator doors, as they deserve their own hall of fame and also merit having their pictures displayed upon the building’s walls as well.)

All 19 teams in Serie A have signed a letter acknowledging that racism is a serious problem in the league, and it's been a source of both shame, and embarassment for all of them. All of the teams have pledged to do their part to combat the racism that exists within the stands. From the statement itself: ‘We, the clubs that have signed this letter, are united by our desire for serious change and Lega Serie A has stated its intention to lead the way by delivering a comprehensive and robust Serie A anti-racism policy, stricter new laws and regulations and a plan for educating those within the game about the scourge of racism. 

We don't have any more time to waste. We must now act with speed, with purpose and with unity and we call on you, the fans, to support us in this vitally important endeavor.’ If you're viewing this with complete and total skepticism, then you have every right to feel that way. It's all well and good to sign statements like this, but until you actually do in fact, do something about the racism, then these promises that you’ve put forth, are meaningless and empty.

Also keep in mind that this comes in light of the fact that Eniola Aluko recently revealed that her time in Italy was unfortunately, marred by racism. 

Racism is an unfortunate scourge, and one that must be eradicated at all costs. We’ve also, unfortunately, been let down by the FIGC and the country’s government so many times, so it’s only natural that one would have many questions about this ‘initiative’.

Either way, they say the first step is to admit you have a problem. Now, go on and redeem yourself by actually doing something about it.