Serie A president Ezio Simonelli says AC Milan-Como game at Perth’s Optus Stadium will go ahead

The boss of Italy’s Serie A soccer league has claimed the match between sporting giant AC Milan and Como will still go ahead in Perth as planned. The match — which was set to be a historic first genuine league fixture played outside of Italy — appeared dead in the water last week when talks between Serie A and the world governing body FIFA stalled. Speaking before AC Milan faced Napoli in a cup game in Saudi Arabia overnight, Serie A president Ezio Simonelli said the game would go ahead because the league had softened its stance on some of the conditions placed around the match. Italian officials met with FIFA president Gianni Infantino in Doha last week in a last-ditch attempt to save the match. “Milan-Como will be played in Perth on February 8 as planned,” Simonelli told Sport Mediaset. “We met Infantino in Doha, it was a very cordial meeting as always. We had a series of doubts over some of the conditions that had been set, which we considered impractical, for example, being asked to use Asian Federation referees, as we have great faith in our Italian referees.” Asked about the prospect of the event being revived on Friday, Rita Saffioti said she was waiting on a formal green light. “I don’t have any formal updates,” the Sport and Recreation minister said. “I’ve seen some of the coverage overnight. We understand that FIFA has been approached, so we stand ready to receive any formal communication.” Ms Saffioti said there was no “guidebook” on how to handle the “world-first” situation. The minister has previously denied she would be personally embarrassed if the fixture fell over and on Friday claimed even if the match doesn’t go ahead, Perth has still reaped the benefits. “The media exposure alone for example, and this was before last week, there’s been a valuation of the media exposure of Perth through the discussions, it’s been valued at over $200 million,” she said. “That’s just the media exposure, the name Perth has been used very much around the world; if this were to happen, I suspect that number would quadruple.” Simonelli said the league — one of the top competitions in the world — had been recommended Asian-accredited referees they deemed suitable.