FPF presents new protocol to the Public Ministry and suggests Paulistão games after 8 pm | Paulista Championship

The FPF proposed to the MP the holding of games only after 8:00 p.m., when the curfew determined by the Government of the State of São Paulo is already in force during the emergency phase.

The evaluation of the FPF is that the Public Ministry was more receptive now than in relation to the last protocol presented, when the games were already suspended in São Paulo. New meetings are expected to take place throughout the week.

Additionally, the FPF suggests that only a few games, those involving teams with tighter schedules, be played until April 11, when the current period of the emergency phase ends. The concern is with Corinthians, Palmeiras, Santos, São Paulo, Ponte Preta and Red Bull Bragantino, which compete in other championships in addition to Paulistão.

+ READ MORE: FPF creates a new protocol to convince the MP

Currently, most of Paulista’s teams have played four games. The exceptions are Corinthians and Mirassol, who also met last week in the interior of Rio and have played five games.

The FPF took advantage of the gap to advance one round, tried to do the same with Ponte Preta x Santos, which was scheduled for São Januário, but ended up vetoed by the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Due to this bottleneck in the calendar, the need to look again for cities outside of São Paulo that accept to host Paulista matches has not yet been ruled out. There is great difficulty in finding these places, but it is an option still considered if the Public Ministry maintains the position of recommending the suspension of matches.

On the other hand, the possibility of asking the Justice to force the resumption of the tournament, something that has generated great negative repercussions, is an option left aside for the moment.

This Monday, the 16 clubs of the first state division met in a virtual meeting and decided to try to resume the dialogue with the Public Ministry. To do this, they developed a new game creation protocol, even more rigid than the previous one.

The FPF plans to lock players and technical commissions in “bubbles”, increase the number of tests and radically reduce the number of people authorized to work in the stadiums on match days.

The Paulista Championship has been paralyzed since the fourth round due to the determination of the João Doria government (PSDB) to increase restrictions in the state due to the Covid-19 pandemic. During this period, only Mirassol x Corinthians and São Bento x Palmeiras were played, both in Volta Redonda. Corinthians also played against Retrô, from Pernambuco, in Saquarema, in Rio, for the second phase of the Copa do Brasil, the match was scheduled for São Paulo.