Italy’s Olympic committee calls for sports events to be suspended on day of Pope Francis’ funeral

The Italian national Olympic committee, CONI, has made a request for sports events to be suspended on Saturday in honor of Pope Francis’ funeral. The government has declared five days of national mourning following the death of the beloved pope, who passed away at the age of 88 on Monday.

CONI has called for a minute of silence to be observed at all sporting events on Saturday to pay tribute to Pope Francis, who was known to be a lifelong soccer fan. This request will affect three top-tier Serie A soccer games scheduled to take place on Saturday, including a match between league leader Inter Milan and Roma.

It remains unclear if other league and cup soccer games scheduled for this week will also be affected by the suspension of sports events on Saturday. However, all sports events that were originally scheduled for Monday in Italy were postponed in light of Pope Francis’ passing. This included the rescheduling of four Serie A games to Wednesday as a mark of respect for the late pope.

In addition to Italy, sports events in Pope Francis’ home country of Argentina were also suspended following his death. The global soccer community has come together to mourn the loss of a passionate soccer fan and advocate for the sport.

For more updates on soccer news, you can visit the AP soccer hub at https://apnews.com/hub/soccer. Stay tuned for further announcements regarding the scheduling of sports events in Italy in the coming days.