SALERNITANA players have been hospitalised with food poisoning after returning south from a 2-0 defeat in the first leg of their Serie B relegation play-off with Sampdoria.
Salernitana said on Monday that training had been cancelled after 21 people among the playing and training staff picked up “serious food poisoning” which caused illness during Sunday’s trip back to Salerno from northern port city Genoa.
“The situation required the intervention of ambulances on arrival at Salerno airport and the hospitalisation of a significant number of those concerned,“ added Salernitana.
Italian media report that 16 people were hospitalised, eight of them from the playing squad, and that police had visited the hotel where Salernitana players stayed ahead of the first leg and which prepared the team’s in-flight meal for the return to Salerno.
Samp were relegated to the third tier for the first time in their history last month, only to be saved by a points deduction for Brescia which bumped the 1991 Italian champions into one of the division’s two relegation play-off positions.
The second leg of the play-off is scheduled for Friday night but Salernitana have asked that the match be pushed back to a later date following the rash of food poisoning.
“We are very concerned about what happened and the series of events which risk undermining our ability to face the final minutes of this season in a normal and calm way,“ said Salernitana.
One of seven Italian clubs who have played all their football in the top two divisions, Sampdoria were relegated to Serie B in 2023. They were close to going bust before being saved by current president Matteo Manfredi and former Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani, who has since exited the club.
The club’s current majority shareholder is Singaporean businessman Joseph Tey.
Club icons Alberico Evani and Attilio Lombardo were hired as coaches in April in an attempt to save Sampdoria from the drop after significant transfer market activity both last summer and in January.
Evani is Sampdoria’s fourth head coach of the season after Andrea Pirlo, Andrea Sottil and Leonardo Semplice.
