The top team in Italy, Pomigliano, quit the women’s Serie A Femminile “with immediate effect” after only six games, which caused much chaos in the sport.
The choice to pull out was made public on Saturday, after a controversial call by the judge that gave Pomigliano’s opponent Sampdoria the game-winning penalty.
Five minutes into the second half, Pomigliano defender Gaia Apicella was sent off for getting a second yellow card. A penalty in the 82nd minute by Taty, a former Pomigliano player, made the difference in a close game.
The loss was Antonio Contreras’s team’s fifth in six games since the beginning of the season. Pomigliano is currently in second-to-last place, one point behind Napoli, having only won one game so far this season.
In a shocking news release, Pomigliano criticized the Women’s Football Division of the Italian Football Federation, saying that they “are fighting against invisible opponents, that takes away your energy and the desire to continue.”
In a Tuttosport press release, the statement said: “The company, at the end of today’s match, met with its board of directors and in the presence of all the members, respecting its investments, in nobility of the sporting project that it has been pursuing for years, in the belief that the principles of sport in women’s football have become a true utopia, says enough!”When you fight phantom enemies, it turns into an unfair battle that drains your energy and makes you want to give up.”Because the division on the one hand requires that payment deadlines and methods are followed, but on the other hand can’t guarantee a certain plan for the management of the payments to be made, it affects the company’s internal planning and forces it to work without certain deadlines and methods.”
The most important women’s league in Italy became fully professional at the start of the 2022–23 season. However, teams that can’t meet the new standards are having trouble. Because of this, there are only 10 teams in the league.
It was thought that Sampdoria would be getting rid of their women’s team before the season started, but just two weeks before the season began, the decision was changed. Pomigliano claimed that the referee’s decision on Saturday was the only thing that made the club decide to leave the Premier League.
The statement stated: “In addition to the refereeing management of the match against Sampdoria where the referee and fourth official managed and directed the outcome of the match in favour of the Ligurians, implementing a one-sided attitude from the beginning to the end of the match.”Too harsh on our players, but not harsh enough on the Sampdoria players in similar situations. A Sampdoria player got two yellow cards, but our bench player only got a warning at the “suggestion” of the fourth official who was in charge of the judging on the field.Of course, there was the fake penalty kick that was shown on TV, with the traveling player not getting hit at all by our defender. That choice decided the outcome of the game.The company is pulling the team out of the title right away because of all of this and other information that was sent straight to the Women’s Football Division.
The message was not on the club’s website as of Sunday afternoon. Since Saturday’s loss, neither club’s social media pages have said anything.
If the club’s decision to leave the league is confirmed, the Italian top division will have a hard time getting around with only nine teams. Next Saturday, Pomigliano will play the league winners, Inter Milan.
