Binaghi Attacks Serie A: "Schedule Made With Their Feet"

Angelo Binaghi, president of the Italian Tennis Federation, has rejected the Serie A League's request to push back the Italian Open final by thirty minutes, to 17:30, in order to allow the regular running of the Roma-Lazio derby scheduled for Sunday 17 May.

"In your opinion, should we move or should football move? Ask the public. We have been moving for 25 years," said the FITP president on the sidelines of the quarterfinal won by Jannik Sinner over Andrey Rublev at the Foro Italico. "I don't understand why we should move when there is an idiot, as I read in Corriere della Sera, who has organized a championship with his feet."

The men's final of the Rome Masters 1000 is set for 17:00 on Sunday, while the Roman derby had initially been scheduled for 12:30 on the same day. The Prefecture, for reasons of public order, had then ordered Roma-Lazio to be moved to Monday 18 May at 20:45, a decision against which the League has filed an appeal with the TAR (administrative court).

Binaghi recalled that the tournament's television rights are not owned by the Federation but by ATP Media, which is why the supervisor cannot modify the time of a final broadcast in dozens of countries. The president also cited the precedent of the Turin derby, originally scheduled to coincide with the ATP Finals and moved after his direct intervention with the League's CEO, Luigi De Siervo.

The issue of the coexistence of the two events remains, in a city that on Sunday will have to manage tens of thousands of fans and spectators within a few hours between the Olimpico and the Foro Italico.