On Saturday, As Roma played against Hellas Verona which was their first match in the Italian Serie A 2020-2021 season and the match ended 0-0. When the thought they have earned their first point of the season, the league body announced that they have lost the match 3-0 for fielding an ineligible player.
The player that cost the Italian Serie A club their first three points of the season was 23-year-old Guinea midfielder Amadou Diawara. The Guinea international was not registered among the AS Roma’s 25-man list for the 2020-2021 season despite the fact that the club still has unfilled spaces in the squad.
But he played 89 minutes in the club’s first Serie A match of the season which was contrary to the regulations of Italian Serie A. In what was termed an administrative error, it was gathered that the club mistakenly registered Amadou Diawara under the club’s under-22 squad despite the fact that the midfielder’s age has disqualified him from such a level of football. The plan was however to register him in the club’s senior squad for the season.
According to reports, the Serie A’s automated system has earlier alerted AS Roma of the error. Reports also claimed that AS Roma told the league body about the warning they got from the automated system set up to dictate such an error ahead of their match against Verona but the league body allegedly urged them to go on with their matchday squad.
However, after the match, Serie A informed them that their system has warned them against fielding Amadou Diawara who was an unregistered player for the league this season. The league body also insisted that it didn’t urge the club to go ahead with Roma’s decision to play Diawara.
Hence, Roma has to forfeit three points despite drawing their first league match. This means that the club is sitting at the bottom of the league table. The only option the club has left is to appeal Serie A’s decision on the basis that the club did not decide to field an unregistered player intentionally.
If Roma is able to win the appeal, Serie A’s decision could be overturned again to 0-0 which will take the club off the joint-bottom position they are currently occupying.
As Roma’s fans are looking forward to what the next step of the club would be, the club’s next Italian Serie A match is against the reigning champions of the league, Juventus on September 27. After that, they will pay a visit to Udinese on October 3.
Amadou Diawara joined Roma from Napoli in July 2019 for a transfer fee worth 21 million euros. Since then, the midfielder has played for the Italian club 31 times scoring one goal and providing one assist.
