The Serie A season is finally set to restart after a three-month break in play, with June 20 now confirmed as the return date.
However, it’s still not a 100 per cent certainty that the season is played out fully by the August 20 target date.
With the Italian government’s insistence on the entire team undergoing a two-week quarantine if any player or staff tests positive, any further delay could prevent the season from being completed.
The Italian Football Federation made Serie A 2020 news by confirming that if the league undergoes a temporary suspension, play-offs and play-outs will be held to settle issues at the top and bottom of the table.
But in case even those are not possible, what are their options for settling the season? SBOBET takes a look at four potential options Serie A could take if the season can’t conclude as planned.
Option 1: Keep the table as is
This option is as straightforward as it gets. In this scenario, the season is called over, with the current standings considered final.
Juventus, who the Serie A 2020 odds still have as big favourites despite being just a point ahead of Lazio, would be top if this option were instituted now. Although, it remains to be seen if they will be necessarily crowned champions. Juve would also finish top in all the other touted options.
Lazio unfortunately won’t get the chance to continue their title charge in this scenario. But they will get a Champions League place along with Inter and Atalanta, while Roma and Napoli would be through to the Europa League group stage. Milan at seventh would still need to go through the Europa League qualifying stage.
Meanwhile, Lecce would be relegated to Serie B, joining SPAL and Brescia. Genoa would be safe on goal difference.
While this isn’t the ideal ending for fans, it is at least the easiest to understand, with no further calculations needed.
Option 2: Simple points per game
The big drawback to Option A is that due to the postponements in play, there are still eight sides who have played just 25 games while the rest have played 26. So halting the season as is would be unfair to those sides who’ve played a game fewer.
The simple points per game option would solve that by dividing a team’s total points to games played to get its average PPG.
The final outcome of the simple PPG model won’t be all that different from Option A, except for AC Milan, who would drop from seventh to ninth. Hellas Verona would then go seventh and into the Europa League qualifying while Parma would go climb to eighth.
Option 3: Weighted points per game
There is also a weighted PPG option, which is similar to the simple PPG, but it takes home and away form into account.
To calculate weighted PPG, divide points by the number of games played for home and away form separately. Then, multiply each number by 19 and add them together to create a total points tally.
But while this option is technically “fairer,” it wouldn’t make much of a difference to the simple PPG option as Milan would still drop down to ninth. Aside from a few midtable teams swapping positions, there aren’t any notable changes to the table.
Option 4: Back to 19 games
The big drawback of the weighted PPG option is that there is an imbalance in the strength of the opponents they’ve played.
A potential option to solve that imbalance is for everyone to go back to 19 games, where they’ve played each other exactly once.
This option would significantly shake up the standings as they currently stand. While Juve would still be on top, Inter would overtake Lazio for second, while Roma would be on top of Atalanta via goal difference.
Cagliari and Parma would make the Europa League group stage, while Genoa would go down since they’re a point behind Lecce.
It’s hard to see this option being a popular one, though. It would disregard all the players’ efforts in those 6-7 matches, and even then, it still won’t completely balance the scales for all teams.
Clearly, all four options have their flaws and are no one’s ideal scenario. Hopefully, though, it doesn’t have to come to the point where Serie A has to choose any of those options. The best situation is still that the season can resume and that all issues be settled on the pitch.
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